So doesn't mc have an idea about his powers now... So does he train with them or what... It's been months now and there's no mention of him training his powers... He's just burying his head in sand and hoping for best... He doesn't have to go heroing but training himself and powers for self defense is needed since he knows this is marvel universe or has he forgotten about the aliens,gods,etc... I mean what's the use of powers if doesn't even explore them i.e., if he can go to space or survive in it...
Up and Away(SI MCU)
- Thread starter Proman
- Start date
- Location
- Ireland
I don't usually come out so blunt but I'm not sure you can read properly. Like if he doesn't train, how would he know that he's gotten both faster and stronger or control his other powers?
And to be clear, I'm not writing him to have meta-knowledge of MCU. Just whatever know how I would've had before Iron Man(The FILM) which means that he's never read a single marvel comic and didn't even have a phone or internet access at all.
Also of the powers, whether he has flight wasn't mentioned. So going to space is hard, if not the dumbest thing I've heard.
Last edited:
Chapter 6
- Location
- Ireland
(Jim O'Reilly)
Louise wasn't home when Jim got back, something he was glad for. The father didn't want to let his little girl see the blood that he was covered in. He'd told her that this sort of thing would no longer happen, that no longer would Louise come home to see her dad battered and bruised. But it had always been a lie.
Jim placed his coat on a rack, only yelling back a response to his wife when she yelled hello to him. Instead of going to meet her, Jim went towards a bathroom under their stairs. It was a small cramped room barely containing a sink, a toilet, and a shower inside. The father wasn't very hurt, just a couple of bruises, the real reason he needed to be in here was to wash off other people's blood from his fists, from his face and to let him change into a clean set of clothes that Jim had kept here in case of emergencies like this.
Jim could hear the sound of the front door opening, the sound of footsteps hitting the ground lightly telling him who had come in even before he heard their voice.
"Pop, Mom!" Louise yelled out, her voice a tone that set Jim on edge. The kind of false cheer that just didn't fit with his daughter's attitude most of the time. It didn't help the man to get over his current dour mood. "I'm back home!"
That line caused Jim to glance at his watch, noting the time was early in the morning, making the last time he'd seen his daughter the day before. Meaning she was out all night… and came home clearly upset. Without further notice, he got changed into fresh clothes as quickly as possible. Practically ran out of the room with a frown on his face so fierce that lions would whimper in fear at the mere sight of him.
"Louise," he said, while into the living room where both his wife and little girl were sitting on a couch. Jim made sure to keep his voice low and soft despite the rage he'd been feeling. If Louise was upset about something, it wouldn't do "What do you mean that you're back home…?"
Louise just sighed, turning to her other parent and pointing back towards Jim as if this was proving some imaginary point.
"I thought you told him?" she asked her mother, crossing her legs while leaning back into the coach as interacting with Jim was exhausting. "Mom, I so can't deal with this right now."
"Don't you be talking like that to me, Louise Mary O'Reilly" Jim's wife growled, her face frowning at Louise as she leaned in closer to the girl. It was then that the woman did something that the man hadn't expected from her. "But maybe your father could explain where he was all last night? Would that explain why he doesn't know where ya been?"
The two turned to Jim, frowning so sharp that they could cut diamonds with their lips. The only male figure in the room could feel the tension rise in the air like he was being judged as a hypocrite.
"Hey, I was just checking," Jim spoke, his hands raised in surrender. "She's an adult, not like she needs my permission to go out all night. I was only asking."
"But not answering," Louise responded, her eyes glaring sharply up and down his form. Search for something that would break the man's calm exterior. "Where were you last night, Pop?"
He stumbled in his words, causing him to stammer slightly under the raw unimpressed stares of his family. Jim was hoping that he could deflect away from this line of thought but it seemed that his daughter was far too smart for that sort of trick… anymore.
"I was called in by my new boss, had an errand that he wanted me to run," The O'Reilly patriarch shrugged, keeping his eyes on his daughter as to not give away any sign of weakness. "It was further than I thought it would be so I just crashed in the office."
Wesley had set up Jim with a cozy cover as head of security for a small firm that the true boss had acquired through more legitimate means that usual. Given him both a good excuse to be beaten and to be out of his own home for long periods of time.
It also gave him his own office.
"Was there a break-in?" Louise asked, her eyes focusing on a spot on his knuckles that while clean of blood still had rather cut skin.
"Ah, yeah but it was only some kid," Jim replied smoothly, perhaps too smoothly if Louise's eyes somehow managing to narrow even further was a sign but his little girl didn't bother to call that out. "Got cut when the kid jumped the wall and I tried to chase after him. Boy didn't get to steal anything, even if he did manage to get away. So the boss was more than happy with the result."
It was a smoke lie, one that he didn't even need to come up with, other than the situation itself, of course. You see mainly Jim's boss was happy with how the last night's job went even if he would've rather it done with less notice. Fisk wasn't ready yet for even the criminal underworld to know that he was planning for a big play in the near future.
"Huh," Jim's wife leaned forward the grey of her brown hair cascading down her bare back as her revealing top was on full display, it was the woman's usual style. Something that a girl much younger than her would wear going out for the night. "That's good, a kid isn't too dangerous?" she said as if she was asking a question but rather than waiting for a response to that, she continued on with more. "He didn't have a knife, did he?
"Mom, if he had a knife, Pop's old ass would have more than just a few knuckle scratches," Louise sighed, throwing her mother an exasperated look. The father was a bit insulted that his own daughter seemed to think that some kid with a knife could take him out but Jim wasn't in the mood to get into an argument with anyone right now.
"Now that we've got where I was out of the way, let's move onto where you were the whole night?"
Louise turned her head down, her eyes staring at Jim's feet as if it was some kind of bullseye that the girl was about to hit with a cannon. Her cheeks were so red that if the color was any richer then he would've thought that she'd done her make-up badly.
"I was at… Pat's."
Jim didn't speak, he just waited for his daughter to continue, to elaborate that point on with other names. Perhaps even mentioning how she had other friends that also stayed there the night but it never came. When Jim was finally ready to express his displeasure with the idea that his daughter was staying overnight at a man's apartment, that was when his wife intruded once more.
"There's an innocent guy if there ever was," She giggled, something that caused Jim to glare at her. "Oh come on, Jim," The woman continued, having noticed the glare and found much amusement from it. "The guy is barely a predator, kid couldn't hurt a fly, can't even bring himself to shout a dog off him… worried about scaring the creature."
She was referring to the time that Pat had met Louise and her mother on a walk-in Central Park, the young man wanted to see the sights of such a large park. Something that he didn't have much experience if his amazement was anything to write home about. While there a labrador decided that it liked his shoes, and tried to run off with them. Pat wasn't very good at trying to get them back from the dog.
This was in spite of being much faster than the small creature.
"Sam," Jim responded to her, speaking her name for the first time of the day, his tone stern. "I don't care if the kid's a living saint or not, I'm just not comfortable with the idea of Louise spending the night alone with some man. She could at least invite another friend."
The woman shared a look with each other, but unlike usual it wasn't one of annoyance or even anger, which were the typical responses Jim got whenever he made statements like that. No, it was instead a shared expression of worry, of an awkward anger one wouldn't have when they've only heard something stupid.
"What?" Jim asked slowly, his eyes shifting from one to the other hoping one of them would break first.
"See… it's not me who we should-" Before Louise could finish that sentence, his phone rang, the loud buzzing cutting the girl off before she could get to the meat of the conversation. Normally when Jim was talking with people who were using such serious tones, he'd ignored it but he knew from the ring tone alone who this was.
And you didn't ignore Wilson Fisk when he called you directly.
"I'm sorry, gotta take this," Jim explained standing up and walking out of the room as fast as he could. The father walked all the way to the kitchen, his ear pressed up to the phone while his free hand hit the answer button.
"Mr. O'Reilly," Fisk said the words in his own typical fashion, he was constantly out of breath. "I regret to inform you that some of my contacts have discovered that your former associates have put a bounty for you, only twenty-thousand, they're not interested in having you dead… yet," Jim felt his heart leap into his chest, even though he knew that this could happen, he hadn't expected it so soon. "But I have need… of your services in the future. So just in case of any unforeseen obstacles, I shall send you to my tailor, prepare for Wesley to pick you up tomorrow morning."
With those words spoken Wilson Fisk hung up, causing Jim to let out a sigh, one that was more from regret than from relief. Fisk wasn't someone that liked to talk to underlings, at least not for more than a few simple words. The fact that he had spoken directly to him at all, told O'Reilly more than one thing. Jim rubbed his jaw, scratching his chin with enough force that there was an audible noise as his nails made contact with his beard.
"Pop?" Louise spoke, causing her father to jump in shock at her rather sudden appearance in the kitchen. "You okay?" her face was shifted into a deep frown, one that only showcased concern. "You look like a ghost just popped out of the wall and attacked you… it's not Grandpa is it? Back from the dead to haunt you for taking all of his money?"
"What?" Jim blinked, taken aback by that rather odd non sequitur Louise just shown his way. "Your Granpa's still alive and money? Guy's not got a penny to his name? What are you talking about?"
"Could've just died," The young girl smiled, the rather dark attempt at humor now apparent to her old man. Jim chuckled slightly, not because the joke was funny but because it at least worked at taking his mind away from the news he'd just received. "Then the money would've came from the life insurance."
"Well, I wouldn't worry about that," The father shook his head, placing his phone down on the kitchen counter with a nonchalance that should've only existed when a parent's child didn't have sticky fingers. "Me Dad's probably going to outlive all of us at this stage."
It was then a thought entered his head, something else that could distract him from the mistake he had made yesterday in trying to warn Sean. What was she going to say not a minute ago?
"So what were you going to say earlier?" he asked, walking around his young girl and reaching into their fridge to grab a cold drink. "Sounded pretty dang important."
"Dang? Really, Pop?" Louise rolled her eyes at him, leaning back onto the counter and slyly sliding the phone into her pocket. "It was about Pat… "
When she trailed off this time, Jim couldn't help but feel the air start to thicken from the tension that was building. He turned around to face her once more and her eyes were looking to the ground, giving off the vibe that while not ashamed, Louise wasn't sure if she should tell me whatever it was.
"Look… if something happened," he laid his hand on her shoulder, giving her the softest smile that he could. "You can tell me, I would never judge you."
"It's not about me," she responded, still acting much too meek for his daughter but then Louise looked back up to Jim with a sad expression, one that the man never liked to see on her face. "Pat was investigating some blackouts, found a lead, went to talk to her and-"
It was then that Louise went into detail, though talking so fast that Jim needed to tell her to slow down to elaborate on some parts but eventually Jim managed to get the idea that she was truly trying to get across.
"And you're saying that his reaction about this is subdued?" Jim asked, deciding to try and cut towards the part of the story that seemed to bother the girl the most. "I'd expect him to be really angry."
"So would I!" Louise threw up her hands, exploding with emotion and motion that knocked Jim's hand off her shoulder, which was something the father was more used to seeing from her than the rather dour mood she'd been displaying prior. "But I guess since it didn't work on him," she frowned, shoving her arms under her armpit. "Pat just doesn't get that the woman was trying to-"
"Let's not say that out loud," Her father interrupted, placing his hand once more on her shoulder. "It's only working you up more. How about I have a talk with him? See if I can't get him to open up, maybe bring it up to Ben."
That seemed to actually calm her down, Louise sagged down and closed her eyes.
"Thanks, I'm just a bit worried that he's holding in his rage-"
"-and with his power… imagine just what kind of carnage he could unleash if he was to break."
(Pat Doyle)
"Jam Donut," I stared at the thing before taking a bite out of the pastry with great gusto. The jam exploded across my lips, causing me to lick the strawberry goodness, "I love them, thanks Ben!"
We were sitting outside of a cafe, enjoying a quiet lunch while discussing the developments that had been uncovered by the retrieval of Doctor Octavius' personnel files. Since it seemed to be a break breakthrough Ben had decided that he'd treat me to a meal and we'd talk over that. Ben himself sat at the opposite end of the table from me, his left hand tapping away at the table while his right slowly brought his cup of coffee to his lips. It was a light blend, while a heavy coffee drinker Ben kept the heavier stuff for late nights working.
"Sounds like a dangerous woman," he said, tapping a folder containing the Doctor's files while setting the drink down on top of it. "Especially if not even Tony Stark would keep her on."
There was an insult, though one that I didn't understand at the time.
"I thought he's calmed down since the whole Iron Man reveal?" I questioned, finishing the donut off in a single bite and then wiping my sugary hands off a tissue that was part of the table's arrangement before shrugging at the other man. "I've only heard of one drunken binge, for him that's amazing!"
Ben chuckled with a smile as if he was enjoying my naivety like someone would when they found a puppy biting their tails. He leaned forward, his eyes staring into mine while also humming up a jaunty tune.
"Listen," he eventually told me, wagging a single finger at me. "The man can have the best of intentions, but as his hard-partying last night proves, it ain't so easy to change yourself."
"Hard-partying?" I asked, lifting a brow. "Just when I thought he was turning things around, what did he do this time?"
"Partied in his Iron Man suit," Ben informed, his face much more serious than it had been just seconds earlier. "Apparently his military friend got his hands on one of the other suits, the two briefly fought and then Colonel Rhodes even managed to run off with the thing… according to my sources."
If I had been drinking, this would've been a spite take moment.
"That's worrying," Was my response instead, dragging the file out from Ben's hold. "And hopefully something that I won't have to deal with later."
"What plan on getting into a fight with the US Military?" he whispered to me, trying to keep this part of the conversation away from curious ears.
"Heck no, I'm just worried about mech suits getting passed around to Police Units in the future," I informed him, remembering briefly the stories of military hardware getting passed to such units in my own universe, one where there wasn't the chance of a Hulk dropping in on you. Here, Some Police Units will be chomping at the bit to get their hands on this stuff, especially if the American Government spends as much on their weapons as I think they will. "Things will only escalate if that happens."
From there I realized that we had gotten off-topic, so I brought things back to what started this discussion.
"So from what I've gotten from her profile is that the Doctor's ego has gone through the roof," I said, running through the details out loud with Ben, an exercise that he started with me to help me work through things. The idea being that he'd ask me simple questions or to elaborate on somethings to get me truly thinking about the details and how they connect. "The Blackouts started in her building, though it's likely since they no longer happen in that apartment that the Doc's either shielded the place or has taken them to another building."
"Have you asked around about the times she leaves the building and they intersect with later blackouts?"
"Yeah, none of the other tenants I've asked notice her leaving around the same time blackouts. So I think the most likely idea is shielding the apartment."
"Good and you got any proof other than conjecture?" Ben asked, pointing his finger at me while taking a final gulp of his coffee. "Because remember, we can't print conjecture. Especially since we don't know what she's doing to cause the blackouts."
"Oh," I blinked, surprised by that statement since it was obvious. "She's trying to break through to other dimensions… maybe even another universe."
This time it was Ben's turn to blink, even going as far as to take off his glasses on rub on the bottom of his shirt. The older man only finally started to talk once more after he coughed, then open and shut his mouth several times.
"You know… isn't she a… and not... " Ben trailed off, his eyes searching for something in mine before he sighed. "You know if you weren't standing before me, I wouldn't believe you. So you think that this is the one, that Octavius is the one that brought you here?"
It was my turn to let out a sigh, one that was much heavier than the one Ben had let out. It would've been so simple if that was true if this woman was the one to have brought me here. The idea had some merit, her experimenting with multiple
"I don't think so," I shook my head, letting the finger on my right-hand twirl around the wood grain of the table. "At least not on purpose and even that wouldn't explain my powers."
"I've said before, it mightn't be connected."
It was something that Ben brought up early to me when I'd arrived to this world, that it was possible that my powers and my arrival to this world weren't connected. The only real issue was that I never really believed it unless I'd gotten the powers before arriving here and just didn't remember it but that seemed far too convenient for my liking.
"Maybe," I said instead of revealing to Ben what I really was thinking. It wouldn't do me any good to get into an argument with the man. "But that's what the next stage of my plan is for!"
"Really, you've actually made a plan?" There was a massive chuckle from the man since he knew that the previous plan I had in getting information was just straight asking for it.
I feel that he won't be impressed with this one either.
"I play to her ego," With my hands out wide and my eyes close, as if I was Randy Orton, proud of myself far more than I probably should be. "She seems into me, I go in with a hidden camera, Louise will be remotely viewing and taking a few still pics along with a video. I just need to have her show me her experiments, tell her that it… will… "
"Turn you on?" Ben grinned, chuckling once more and causing me to light up bright red, at least from what I could tell from the heat rushing up my cheeks.
"Y-yeah."
"I don't know," Ben spoke, his hands waving to catch my attention proper. "Sounds risky if the woman really is as smart as she says."
"Come on, she's off her rocker," I replied, grinning as I leaned forward slightly. "That's gotta take some of those IQ points down, and she's horny for… The P."
With my own thumb pointing at meself at the end of that sentence, Ben couldn't help the barrage of laughter that came out of his mouth.
"Okay, Cassanova," he said, once calming down from his fit but not before he knocked his fist against his chest, trying to cause pain in an attempt to stop it. "But please remember that this is the woman that tried to drug you. You don't know how strong some of the stuff the Doc's got access to is nor what drinking some of that would do to you."
Oh, allergic reactions. Hadn't actually thought of that; in fact, now I wondered what it would be like to drink milk. I'd been allergic to it before arriving here, a certain protein in it anyway. It was likely that I'd gotten over it, it wasn't uncommon for someone with my specific allergy to grow out of it.
But testing that wasn't something that I wanted to risk at any stage of my life. Milk was far too evil for me to ever take that chance.
Suddenly, I felt the air shift, the ground starting to crackle and burst with noise. My reaction speed, far above human norms, allowed me to grab Ben and move a few meters to the left while a pair of claws erupted from the concrete, destroying the table we had been sitting at but only showering tiny chunks on the innocent bystanders.
"Well, that's earlier than I would've thought," I grumbled, waiting for the familiar form of Doc Ock to raise from the hole in the street. But instead what I got were a metal sphere with a single red eye glaring down at me attached to four tentacles with the claws at the center of a rather chrome-looking body.
"Jesus!" Ben yelled out, reacting as a normal person would to a robot coming out of the ground. "We need to get out of here!"
"Yeah… " I trailed off walking away from the man and watching as the robot turned to keep me in its sight, "Not going to work for me."
I threw my jacket off and started to unbutton the top of my shirt, revealing the blue sports-top I'd been wearing underneath and slipping on a blue mask.
"So party time?"
The glaring red shot out a beam at me, one that I was forced to take head-on, in lieu of letting the innocent people around me getting hit by it. With my left palm, I shielded myself from the beam striking my chest, letting it instead grind against the palm and feebly try to push me back.
"A repulsor?" I couldn't help but question out loud. It was a cool weapon type to use, from what I could remember from the Iron Man animated series that is, having either two modes or two types. One was a non-lethal concussive style thing, something that would only push things away with large doses of force, and the lethal one that was closer to a laser, cutting through things. With my durability and strength, it was hard to tell what variation I was dealing with right now.
My contemplation of what kind of repulsor this was left me wide open to one of the robot's claws slashing down at me. Once more I was fast enough to move before it was able to hit me, letting the beam strike the spot in the ground that I'd been standing on.
"Oh," I waggled my finger at the bot, grinning madly. "So close, try again."
Using the seconds that I had before the robot tried something else, my eyes scanned the robotic tentacles with as much of a zoom function that I may as well have been using a microscope. It wasn't long before I noticed something really odd.
"Stainless steel?" Before I could regain my bearings, my ears picked up the sound of the servos whirling up. This gave me just enough time to respond so I could grab one of the claws mid-swing and tear off the blade portion. Then I threw it right into the single eye of the robot, causing it to collapse in a boneless heap.
"Huh," I took a look around, glancing at the bewildered and frightened people who were staring at me and the robot as if we were about to explode at any moment. "Thought that would take longer."
Which was the moment that two more sets of claws burst from the asphalt around me and caught me in their grip. The metal groaned as it pressed against my body, cutting the clothes but not having the ability to get through my skin.
"Spoke too soon, didn't I?"
(Olivia Octavius)
"YES! I HAVE CAPTURED THE TARGET!" Liv yelled out, throwing a hand up into the air and taking her hands from the controls. "Though, I'm now out of kitchenware," she said, thoughtfully scratching at her scalp while peering over to the empty draws laid out on the floor. "Looks like it's plastic folks for me for the next few weeks."
This is what happens when you need robots quickly and already spent your funds on other projects prior to this.
In front of the woman sat a large computer monitor, showcasing the capture of the now masked Pat Doyle in between the claws of two of her robots. In her manic glee, the woman didn't even notice how unconcerned the man was, just that she had succeeded in capturing him.
"Now I can verify the odd readings of this young man my equipment gave me yesterday," she muttered, continuing to grin as the Doctor weaved her fingers together like she was Mister Burns from the Simpsons. "Not to mention that trick he did to defend against the repulsor."
That was something Liv just needed to know.
Without waiting for anything else, she typed away at the controls, signaling for the robots to return to her, not to the apartment mind you, but to a lab/base that she'd set up near a sewer access tunnel. Hopefully, that would mask her involvement long enough to… dissect the body. That would give all the materials that she'd need to conduct experiments. Doctor Octavius hummed as she stood to her feet, very slowly making her way around the room to pick her things. A coat, her normal glasses, not her goggles as she usually wore, and a pair of sneakers with red stripes.
"Oh… the things that I do for the-" Whatever speech the woman was about to give to the empty room was interrupted by a series of loud, rushed knocks to her front door. Liv rolled her eyes and sneered at the air as she turned around and made her way towards the object that had offended her.
There were more knocks, these far louder than the last set before Liv ever reached the door.
"Coming!" Dr. Octavius yelled, holding back the groans the woman could feel trying to escape from her throat. When she finally opened the door the scientist couldn't manage to keep the noise inside and groaned out; "Oh, it's you."
The man's name was Grant, a tall enough man, good looking, well built. But so obviously a spy that it made her head hurt. He thought himself so charming too, Liv wasn't sure she'd seen a spy so dumb that they thought their cover as a newlywed would be helped by flirting with the target. But Grant seemed to think he was charming enough to pull it off and truthfully the Doctor had to agree. He was both charming enough and hot enough to pull off the seduction angle...
… if she hadn't already had his employers hacked years ago and therefore had access to the man's file.
"Hello, Liv," he smiled, his shiny white teeth and chiseled grin sending chills down her body, not due to attraction but instead disgust at his blatant attempt at charming his way into her apartment. "Looks like there's been a fire up a few floors, we've been called out for safety."
The Doctor searched the man over, looking for the signs that he was lying. Not that she expected the spy to be so easy to read, just that this was a lie so easily proven false that she was surprised he tried it.
Since the fire alarm hadn't gone off.
As she raised her right hand to point to the ceiling and mention this fact… the fire alarm actually started to ring out. When Liv looked up briefly and then back to Grant himself, she found him grinning, all sly like as if it wasn't possible that he'd set that up. But it wouldn't matter if the man and his group were given access to the apartment right now.
"Well… that's bad, I'll just have to make haste out of the building, right?" The rather swift shift in her tone from the first half of the sentence to the second seemed to bother the man but since Grant was getting what he asked for, there wasn't anything he could say to that. Else the spy would only worsen the Doctor's suspicions.
So Olivia left Grant standing in the hall, closing her apartment door but not locking it as she made her way to the nearby stairwell. When she reached the floor below, she pushed a button on her watch… starting a timer.
"That should get rid of those flies," Doctor Octavius giggled, making the rest of the ways downstairs knowing that things were going better than planned. In under an hour, her spy problem will be out of the way. In under five hours though?
Then she'd have a prime specimen and her greatest experiment would commence.
"It's good to be me."
(Matt Murdock)
It wasn't luck that he'd been there for the robot attack, he'd been following the man from the docks for about two weeks. Noticed his rather unique nature after running into him, of course, one would think it's hard to find a man that Matt had never seen the face of but the soon-to-be Lawyer was an old hand at that…
… given he was blind.
Though it had been only luck that he'd run into the man a few weeks earlier, even overheard that his name was Pat. And today was one of the days that Matt's schedule seemed to coincide with the mysterious vigilante's, something that he had planned on finally using to meet with the guy once more.
But then robots erupted out of the ground, the first getting taken out easily by the blue vigilante but then when a pair arrived and grabbed him from underneath the street. It seemed to be too much for the superpowered man so he was dragged into the sewers by them.
"And I really liked this suit," Matt couldn't help but mumble, digging out the cloth he kept on hand for his half mask and trying it around his face, he'd already been near an alley so it was easy for him to change into his black gear and store his normal clothes behind a garbage bin. Luckily for him, they wouldn't be collected for another two days so Matt could afford to leave his things there. Without needing to look around for one, Matt was able to find a manhole leading to the same sort of service sewer tunnel that the robots had dragged Pat into, his senses telling him that the two were connected by a passage only a few feet ahead.
Murdock knew that it would be hard to keep up with the robots, their long mechanical legs meant they wouldn't have to worry about slipping or stamina like Matt would but at the same time. The blind man also knew from the sound and shapes of the legs that they'd be slowed down by the small size of the tunnels, especially given that they needed to keep their prey locked down.
In fact, Matt could hear the whirring and clicking of their innards even now, telling him that there wasn't much distance between them. Moving as fast as he could, the blind vigilante sprinted through the tunnels, using all the training he'd been given to move silently, just in case the robots had the capability to hear him coming.
But he also made sure to not go too fast, it wouldn't be good to be caught by running into them before they reached their destination.
There was some light talk echoing from the walls, the sound of Pat attempting to make light conversation with his capturers.
"You know… it's neat being captured by such famous people," he spoke, much to Matt's confusion. "But crime isn't the answer guys, I know the reboot of the War Of the Worlds re-cast you guys and it's made income hard to come by, but that's no excuse for damaging public… and probably private, properties."
There was a chime from one of the bots, something that almost sounded like a response to the man's words.
"Hey now!" Pat griped, his voice flat. "I didn't insult your mother."
Another chime.
This time there wasn't another response till they reached another sewer access point about an hour later; something that Matt could tell only due to the noises from the street that could be heard nearby. There was a clang of metal on metal, the sound of a sliding door opening to reveal a hidden room, one that the blind man hadn't bothered to pay any real attention to.
"You know this isn't more than like a five-minute jog from where I'd been?" Pat asked, the confusion in his voice sounding genuine to Matt's ears. "Wouldn't a base like somewhere further away be better? Police will be searching for you guys, this close, it would be easy to track the stainless steel robots."
There was another series of chimes, this time each robot made their own before Pat responded once more with the air of someone that stubbed their toe lightly rather than having been abducted;
"You can at least try," he whined while Matt pressed his ear against the now-closed entrance to this secret sewer base. "I mean, you don't even have any of those really cool-looking electrical balls or cylinders that shoot lighting. What kind of half-arsed secret evil lab have I been taken too?"
Matt had to give his fellow vigilante this at least, Pat was fearless.
It was at that moment that his ears perked up as the sound of shoes hitting against the cold concrete floor started to emit from the secret lab. Whoever this person was, it was a woman, not too tall, not the fittest person he'd ever met but she certainly would be someone that could defend themselves from a mugger.
"Ah, Mr. Doyle," she spoke, using smooth almost flirting tones, tinged with just a smidge of danger. Matt knew that he couldn't wait out here for long, so ran his fingers along the walls, searching for a way in beside the one that had been revealed.
"Ah… kinda hot science lady… good to see you, I'd wave but I'm a bit tied up at the moment."
"Cute," The woman responded, right as Matt found a vent, something that seemed to lead to the inside of the room. It was large, something that told him that this place needed to be kept cool for some reason; which given Pat called it an evil lab would make sense if the equipment needed to be kept below a certain temperature.
"Do you know why I brought you here?" The Robot's Creator spoke, her hand tapping against some rectangular object in her hand. Matt couldn't be sure from this far away if it was a tablet but the reverb that came from it at least seemed to imply that it was.
"..." Strangely Pat didn't respond, a first since this situation had started Matt noted. But the blind man could hear the other man's heart start to race, he could even hear as Pat started to open and close his mouth a few times.
It seems he was tongue-tied.
"Silence won't stop what's about to happen."
"Well, Doctor… I don't think rape is the best answer for a dry spell."
This caused Matt to pause, and from what he could tell, it also caused the Doctor to pause mid-step. He let the sentence give as much pause as it did the Doctor, instead of shuffling forward with even more urgency than ever, dragging himself up as the vent shifted positions towards the ceiling.
"I'm not going to rape you," her voice shrilly passing through the air. "I'm-"
"-I know that you might think that I want it," Pat interpreted her, causing her stance to tense up, and her feet to squirm in place. "But even for guys, no means no."
Matt barely managed to stop the chuckle that threatened to erupt from his mouth, something that would have revealed his location to the people in the lab. He could imagine that his fellow vigilante was grinning madly… or scared shitless if this wasn't the other man playing around here.
"I'M NOT GOING TO RAPE YOU!" She ended up screaming at the man. This declaration coincided with Matt arriving at the vent cover directly above the woman, waiting for his time to act.
"Oh, thank god," Pat sighed, leaning his chin against the steel of the robot. It seemed that the man had realized exactly what the woman had claimed she was going to do. "I… mean… how dare you!"
"Please," The woman scoffed, her head shifting upwards, causing Matt to gently shift back from the vent cover. It wasn't like he needed to see the woman after all. "I assumed an alien-like yourself would've realized that he'd be noticed eventually. Truly this was inevitable."
"Oh, I did," Pat admitted brazenly, much to Matt's surprise. "I just didn't expect it to be by some lady operating out of a sewer, thought that it would be the US government," There was a large sigh from the man like he hated speaking about the subject. "Gotta ask though, why do you even need to dissect me? What does that actually get you, Liv?"
"Data on what it takes to survive dimensional travel," Liv revealed, her hands coming up to stroke her robotic creations like one would a dog. "While I've managed to send small mechanical beings through the bleed between universes fine. Any organic material is shredded… then I met you. Your body gives off all the same energy readings that my sensors have read when passing through the Bleed. You appear tough enough to survive the transition."
"Wouldn't a living subject get you better data?"
"There's some data that I can only get from literally picking at your brain."
It was then that a dead silence dominated through the room, stopping Matt from getting into position for his eventual ambush of the woman. If he moved too much now, then he'd only get himself caught by the woman.
"There… " Pat attempted to speak only to trail off. It was obvious to Matt that the man was buying time, time that the Doctor was more than happy to give the man.
"There what?" she responded, leaning closer to Pat, given the hidden vigilante time between the movement and words to move back to the grate. "Go on, I can tell you're just dying to ask something."
"Haha," the man responded dryly. "What made you shift focus? I'd read that your main interest was cybernetics, not… inter-universal travel?" he said the term like it was a dirty word, something forbidden and not meant to be talked about. Which given that he was apparently an alien, Matt could presume it could be where he's from.
"Oh, why don't I just say divine intervention and leave it at that."
Before Pat could even bother to question what that meant, and Matt could tell he wanted to from heartbeat alone, there was a loud buzzing noise that echoed throughout the room. It reminded Matt of the sound that an electric cooker or stove would make once their timers would run out.
"Left something in the oven?" Pat mocked, then Matt could oddly hear him suck in a large portion of air like the bots were crushing and he needed to gasp for it… but there wasn't a single motor moving from what he could hear, what was he doing?
"Of course not," she scoffed, her steps marking her position for Matt as Liv made her way towards a console, something that seemed to be cobbled together from laptop parts mixed with an old office desktop. "It's just Phase One is about to start."
"That's your apartment building?" Pat's voice finally sounded truly shocked, so much so that he even let go of the breath he had been holding in.
"Yes, see I'm testing if the building being sent over helps to shield people on the trip, even if it doesn't there's plenty of data to be had from sending over so much material at once," Liv replied to him as if he was asking a question, rather than being shocked.
"My god, you are a mad scientist."
"I'm not mad-"
"-Fine, you're an angry scientist."
"Ignore him, Liv, he's just like the kids in high school," she whispered to herself, so low that Matt was sure those with unheightened hearing couldn't hear her. Then the woman took a deep breath and gathered herself up to speak with a far more sinister tone. "This isn't just about the potential data this experiment will gather but it will also remove those pesky SHIELD Agents that were spying on me."
"Those two were SHIELD Agents?" The captured man exclaimed, sounding more shocked than he'd been about anything else.
"You didn't know?" The Doctor gloated, the glee in her voice vibrating off the walls of the lab. This was a woman that took pleasure in being smarter than all those around if given the chance she'd relish showing it off.
"I knew that they were spies but… " Pat clicked his tongue off the roof of his mouth. "I thought SHIELD Agents would be better at spying, they couldn't even fool me."
"In any case, those Agents will be disposed of in another hour."
It was as she was shrugging that Matt made his move, bursting out of the vent and fling his walking stick right at the woman's throat, before sprinting after it. Sadly for the blind vigilante his senses couldn't warn him in time of the set of tentacles that sprouted out of her back, the first one whacking away his stick while a second tried to impale him.
It was only a miracle that a rogue gust entered the room and flung Matt out of the path, slamming him into a wall.
"What the hell?" Liv whined, stamping her foot on the ground. "I had him."
Before Matt could really think of how he was saved, Pat blew hard on the robots that surrounded him, icing them over before flexing his muscles and shattering his way out of their grip.
"My babies!" The Doctor yelled something that seemed to have brought a smile to the formerly captured man's lips.
"That's what you get for making them out of stainless steel."
"I was improvising!"
("Betty")
"Well, isn't this an odd place for a kid," Betty snarked, walking around a couch while a rather tall redheaded girl rooted around in the cabinets of Octavius' apartment. The non-SHIELD intruder turned around slowly, almost naturally to Betty's eyes as if she truly belonged here.
Of course, since Betty'd been monitoring the building for a few months now, she knew that this girl had never been here before.
"Well… this is an odd place for someone that lives two floors up to be," The girl responded smoothly, not missing a single beat and even going as far as to smile at Betty. Sadly this meant Betty couldn't afford to let this charade go on much longer. Her superiors had given her a deadline.
"Right, I don't have time for this," Betty reached into her chest pocket and pulled out a wallet, showcasing an I.D, and badge. "The names Bobbi Morse, Agent working for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division."
"That's a mouthful," The girl replied, tapping her foot along the floor, her body language alone telling the Agent that she hadn't dropped her guard. An interesting response to being told that a government agent was confronting you after you've broken into an apartment.
"Don't believe it?" Morse couldn't help but ask, buying time for the rest of her team to arrive just in case this kid had some trick up her sleeves. Bobbi had heard the rumors about that woman with super strength in Europe or that girl from a few years ago that survived a car crash and came out with the same, so with those two in mind, Bobbi wasn't interested in taking any risks.
"Never heard of that mouthful of an organization," she shrugged, not bothering to say out the full name and stepping a few more feet towards the Agent. From what Bobbi could see, the ripped state of the young girl could make a fight between the two tougher than the girl's age would suggest. "And I've seen enough fake badges that look legit that I don't trust any."
Bobbi couldn't help but groan, it seemed that she'd been saddled with a street smart child burglar. Thankfully for her nerves, the buzzing sound from her earpiece signaled that her companions were just waiting for the all-clear sign.
Which meant that it was much safer to do this.
"What's your name?" Bobbi asked, having pulled out her gun and pointing towards the young girl. There wasn't any sort of nervous reaction, not like one would expect from a teen getting a pistol pointed at them.
"Lois," The clear lie didn't do anything to help with the tension that the woman could feel building up in the room. Like a powder keg, one wrong move and the girl would blow. "So what's an agent like you doing here?"
For just a second Lois's face flinched as Bobbi glared, revealing that a lot of this behavior was a mask to keep Bobbi from seeing how scared the young girl was. The Agent lowered her gun, though keeping her limb ready to bring it back up.
"I'm asking the questions here," Bobbi claimed, finally taking in the appearance of this Lois in full detail. The girl was too well dressed to be a burglar, at least one that would rob from this apartment. "What are you here for?"
Lois just stared at Bobbi, something that the Agent was more than willing to accommodate. As the door swung open and Grant came walking in, something that caused the youngest person in the room to actually step into a fighting stance.
"Come in at a bad time ladies?" Grant grinned, having taken note of the gun but not bothering to draw his own. "Because I can come back when you've gotten everything sorted out."
"Shut up, Grant," The fellow Agent mumbled, leveling a glare at the man. "Just prep the room for the techies."
"How about this," Lois spoke up suddenly, eyeing Grant like he was dirt Bobbi had dragged into the room. "Quid pro quo, you tell me what you're looking for, maybe I help you and I just leave."
Bobbi glanced around the room, noting that the girl mustn't have been here longer than a few minutes at most. Though the secret agent did find it impressive that Lois had even gotten into the building without her people spotting her.
"Fine," Morse sighed, something that if the groan from Grant was any indication, her current partner didn't agree with. "We're looking into Miss Octavius for dangerous experiments and having a procession of illegal materials."
There wasn't much more Bobbi could divulge to the young girl than those details, her being a civilian and all.
"Well… in that case," Lois nodded her head towards a door, one that once had a steel bolt covering it but now it hung limply in the air. "Might want to check out that door."
Without even being given the order, Grant was already on his way, his own side-arm raised in the air in case of any traps left there by the good Doctor. Slowly he opened the door, his face morphing into something close to utter awe and confusion.
"What the hell!" Grant exclaimed, causing Bobbi to slowly shift positions till she was standing next to him, though keeping the young redhead in her side vision. "Is that a Stargate?"
"Huh," she couldn't help but tilt her head at the sight of a very Stargate-like object, the only difference being that it was segmented rather than being one whole unit, and its size only being around six feet in diameter compared to the twenty feet. "It is."
Sadly for the agents, before they could even attempt to approach or more likely call on tech support to check the device over first. It started to strobe red and lift into the air, spinning around at ever-increasing speeds. Eventually splitting apart and blasting out of a window nearby.
"That can't be good."
"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Bobbi couldn't help but growl, her head popping out of the window to watch as the segments started to circle the entire apartment building. "Here I was thinking the spinning device made by the dangerous scientist was a good thing."
Author's Note: Hello true believers, it is I, Pro-man! And I am here to bring you another chapter from the dept of my inane mind! It will bring together characters that you didn't even conceive of! Or maybe I'm just hyping things up a bit much and you should just take things as they come rather than as I want them.
Also, just a kindly reminder, just because someone says or thinks something, doesn't make it true.
This is a tough chapter to write, but enjoyable all the same. Now we see the mind of Doc Ock in this world, while at the same time getting a tiny hint at why she's the way she is. Don't think that you'll guess why by the way, none of you can because the hint is a very obscure reference to a single sign in a not too well-liked comic.
You'd never guess what, the character's not usually referred to in that way.
Louise wasn't home when Jim got back, something he was glad for. The father didn't want to let his little girl see the blood that he was covered in. He'd told her that this sort of thing would no longer happen, that no longer would Louise come home to see her dad battered and bruised. But it had always been a lie.
Jim placed his coat on a rack, only yelling back a response to his wife when she yelled hello to him. Instead of going to meet her, Jim went towards a bathroom under their stairs. It was a small cramped room barely containing a sink, a toilet, and a shower inside. The father wasn't very hurt, just a couple of bruises, the real reason he needed to be in here was to wash off other people's blood from his fists, from his face and to let him change into a clean set of clothes that Jim had kept here in case of emergencies like this.
Jim could hear the sound of the front door opening, the sound of footsteps hitting the ground lightly telling him who had come in even before he heard their voice.
"Pop, Mom!" Louise yelled out, her voice a tone that set Jim on edge. The kind of false cheer that just didn't fit with his daughter's attitude most of the time. It didn't help the man to get over his current dour mood. "I'm back home!"
That line caused Jim to glance at his watch, noting the time was early in the morning, making the last time he'd seen his daughter the day before. Meaning she was out all night… and came home clearly upset. Without further notice, he got changed into fresh clothes as quickly as possible. Practically ran out of the room with a frown on his face so fierce that lions would whimper in fear at the mere sight of him.
"Louise," he said, while into the living room where both his wife and little girl were sitting on a couch. Jim made sure to keep his voice low and soft despite the rage he'd been feeling. If Louise was upset about something, it wouldn't do "What do you mean that you're back home…?"
Louise just sighed, turning to her other parent and pointing back towards Jim as if this was proving some imaginary point.
"I thought you told him?" she asked her mother, crossing her legs while leaning back into the coach as interacting with Jim was exhausting. "Mom, I so can't deal with this right now."
"Don't you be talking like that to me, Louise Mary O'Reilly" Jim's wife growled, her face frowning at Louise as she leaned in closer to the girl. It was then that the woman did something that the man hadn't expected from her. "But maybe your father could explain where he was all last night? Would that explain why he doesn't know where ya been?"
The two turned to Jim, frowning so sharp that they could cut diamonds with their lips. The only male figure in the room could feel the tension rise in the air like he was being judged as a hypocrite.
"Hey, I was just checking," Jim spoke, his hands raised in surrender. "She's an adult, not like she needs my permission to go out all night. I was only asking."
"But not answering," Louise responded, her eyes glaring sharply up and down his form. Search for something that would break the man's calm exterior. "Where were you last night, Pop?"
He stumbled in his words, causing him to stammer slightly under the raw unimpressed stares of his family. Jim was hoping that he could deflect away from this line of thought but it seemed that his daughter was far too smart for that sort of trick… anymore.
"I was called in by my new boss, had an errand that he wanted me to run," The O'Reilly patriarch shrugged, keeping his eyes on his daughter as to not give away any sign of weakness. "It was further than I thought it would be so I just crashed in the office."
Wesley had set up Jim with a cozy cover as head of security for a small firm that the true boss had acquired through more legitimate means that usual. Given him both a good excuse to be beaten and to be out of his own home for long periods of time.
It also gave him his own office.
"Was there a break-in?" Louise asked, her eyes focusing on a spot on his knuckles that while clean of blood still had rather cut skin.
"Ah, yeah but it was only some kid," Jim replied smoothly, perhaps too smoothly if Louise's eyes somehow managing to narrow even further was a sign but his little girl didn't bother to call that out. "Got cut when the kid jumped the wall and I tried to chase after him. Boy didn't get to steal anything, even if he did manage to get away. So the boss was more than happy with the result."
It was a smoke lie, one that he didn't even need to come up with, other than the situation itself, of course. You see mainly Jim's boss was happy with how the last night's job went even if he would've rather it done with less notice. Fisk wasn't ready yet for even the criminal underworld to know that he was planning for a big play in the near future.
"Huh," Jim's wife leaned forward the grey of her brown hair cascading down her bare back as her revealing top was on full display, it was the woman's usual style. Something that a girl much younger than her would wear going out for the night. "That's good, a kid isn't too dangerous?" she said as if she was asking a question but rather than waiting for a response to that, she continued on with more. "He didn't have a knife, did he?
"Mom, if he had a knife, Pop's old ass would have more than just a few knuckle scratches," Louise sighed, throwing her mother an exasperated look. The father was a bit insulted that his own daughter seemed to think that some kid with a knife could take him out but Jim wasn't in the mood to get into an argument with anyone right now.
"Now that we've got where I was out of the way, let's move onto where you were the whole night?"
Louise turned her head down, her eyes staring at Jim's feet as if it was some kind of bullseye that the girl was about to hit with a cannon. Her cheeks were so red that if the color was any richer then he would've thought that she'd done her make-up badly.
"I was at… Pat's."
Jim didn't speak, he just waited for his daughter to continue, to elaborate that point on with other names. Perhaps even mentioning how she had other friends that also stayed there the night but it never came. When Jim was finally ready to express his displeasure with the idea that his daughter was staying overnight at a man's apartment, that was when his wife intruded once more.
"There's an innocent guy if there ever was," She giggled, something that caused Jim to glare at her. "Oh come on, Jim," The woman continued, having noticed the glare and found much amusement from it. "The guy is barely a predator, kid couldn't hurt a fly, can't even bring himself to shout a dog off him… worried about scaring the creature."
She was referring to the time that Pat had met Louise and her mother on a walk-in Central Park, the young man wanted to see the sights of such a large park. Something that he didn't have much experience if his amazement was anything to write home about. While there a labrador decided that it liked his shoes, and tried to run off with them. Pat wasn't very good at trying to get them back from the dog.
This was in spite of being much faster than the small creature.
"Sam," Jim responded to her, speaking her name for the first time of the day, his tone stern. "I don't care if the kid's a living saint or not, I'm just not comfortable with the idea of Louise spending the night alone with some man. She could at least invite another friend."
The woman shared a look with each other, but unlike usual it wasn't one of annoyance or even anger, which were the typical responses Jim got whenever he made statements like that. No, it was instead a shared expression of worry, of an awkward anger one wouldn't have when they've only heard something stupid.
"What?" Jim asked slowly, his eyes shifting from one to the other hoping one of them would break first.
"See… it's not me who we should-" Before Louise could finish that sentence, his phone rang, the loud buzzing cutting the girl off before she could get to the meat of the conversation. Normally when Jim was talking with people who were using such serious tones, he'd ignored it but he knew from the ring tone alone who this was.
And you didn't ignore Wilson Fisk when he called you directly.
"I'm sorry, gotta take this," Jim explained standing up and walking out of the room as fast as he could. The father walked all the way to the kitchen, his ear pressed up to the phone while his free hand hit the answer button.
"Mr. O'Reilly," Fisk said the words in his own typical fashion, he was constantly out of breath. "I regret to inform you that some of my contacts have discovered that your former associates have put a bounty for you, only twenty-thousand, they're not interested in having you dead… yet," Jim felt his heart leap into his chest, even though he knew that this could happen, he hadn't expected it so soon. "But I have need… of your services in the future. So just in case of any unforeseen obstacles, I shall send you to my tailor, prepare for Wesley to pick you up tomorrow morning."
With those words spoken Wilson Fisk hung up, causing Jim to let out a sigh, one that was more from regret than from relief. Fisk wasn't someone that liked to talk to underlings, at least not for more than a few simple words. The fact that he had spoken directly to him at all, told O'Reilly more than one thing. Jim rubbed his jaw, scratching his chin with enough force that there was an audible noise as his nails made contact with his beard.
"Pop?" Louise spoke, causing her father to jump in shock at her rather sudden appearance in the kitchen. "You okay?" her face was shifted into a deep frown, one that only showcased concern. "You look like a ghost just popped out of the wall and attacked you… it's not Grandpa is it? Back from the dead to haunt you for taking all of his money?"
"What?" Jim blinked, taken aback by that rather odd non sequitur Louise just shown his way. "Your Granpa's still alive and money? Guy's not got a penny to his name? What are you talking about?"
"Could've just died," The young girl smiled, the rather dark attempt at humor now apparent to her old man. Jim chuckled slightly, not because the joke was funny but because it at least worked at taking his mind away from the news he'd just received. "Then the money would've came from the life insurance."
"Well, I wouldn't worry about that," The father shook his head, placing his phone down on the kitchen counter with a nonchalance that should've only existed when a parent's child didn't have sticky fingers. "Me Dad's probably going to outlive all of us at this stage."
It was then a thought entered his head, something else that could distract him from the mistake he had made yesterday in trying to warn Sean. What was she going to say not a minute ago?
"So what were you going to say earlier?" he asked, walking around his young girl and reaching into their fridge to grab a cold drink. "Sounded pretty dang important."
"Dang? Really, Pop?" Louise rolled her eyes at him, leaning back onto the counter and slyly sliding the phone into her pocket. "It was about Pat… "
When she trailed off this time, Jim couldn't help but feel the air start to thicken from the tension that was building. He turned around to face her once more and her eyes were looking to the ground, giving off the vibe that while not ashamed, Louise wasn't sure if she should tell me whatever it was.
"Look… if something happened," he laid his hand on her shoulder, giving her the softest smile that he could. "You can tell me, I would never judge you."
"It's not about me," she responded, still acting much too meek for his daughter but then Louise looked back up to Jim with a sad expression, one that the man never liked to see on her face. "Pat was investigating some blackouts, found a lead, went to talk to her and-"
It was then that Louise went into detail, though talking so fast that Jim needed to tell her to slow down to elaborate on some parts but eventually Jim managed to get the idea that she was truly trying to get across.
"And you're saying that his reaction about this is subdued?" Jim asked, deciding to try and cut towards the part of the story that seemed to bother the girl the most. "I'd expect him to be really angry."
"So would I!" Louise threw up her hands, exploding with emotion and motion that knocked Jim's hand off her shoulder, which was something the father was more used to seeing from her than the rather dour mood she'd been displaying prior. "But I guess since it didn't work on him," she frowned, shoving her arms under her armpit. "Pat just doesn't get that the woman was trying to-"
"Let's not say that out loud," Her father interrupted, placing his hand once more on her shoulder. "It's only working you up more. How about I have a talk with him? See if I can't get him to open up, maybe bring it up to Ben."
That seemed to actually calm her down, Louise sagged down and closed her eyes.
"Thanks, I'm just a bit worried that he's holding in his rage-"
"-and with his power… imagine just what kind of carnage he could unleash if he was to break."
(Pat Doyle)
"Jam Donut," I stared at the thing before taking a bite out of the pastry with great gusto. The jam exploded across my lips, causing me to lick the strawberry goodness, "I love them, thanks Ben!"
We were sitting outside of a cafe, enjoying a quiet lunch while discussing the developments that had been uncovered by the retrieval of Doctor Octavius' personnel files. Since it seemed to be a break breakthrough Ben had decided that he'd treat me to a meal and we'd talk over that. Ben himself sat at the opposite end of the table from me, his left hand tapping away at the table while his right slowly brought his cup of coffee to his lips. It was a light blend, while a heavy coffee drinker Ben kept the heavier stuff for late nights working.
"Sounds like a dangerous woman," he said, tapping a folder containing the Doctor's files while setting the drink down on top of it. "Especially if not even Tony Stark would keep her on."
There was an insult, though one that I didn't understand at the time.
"I thought he's calmed down since the whole Iron Man reveal?" I questioned, finishing the donut off in a single bite and then wiping my sugary hands off a tissue that was part of the table's arrangement before shrugging at the other man. "I've only heard of one drunken binge, for him that's amazing!"
Ben chuckled with a smile as if he was enjoying my naivety like someone would when they found a puppy biting their tails. He leaned forward, his eyes staring into mine while also humming up a jaunty tune.
"Listen," he eventually told me, wagging a single finger at me. "The man can have the best of intentions, but as his hard-partying last night proves, it ain't so easy to change yourself."
"Hard-partying?" I asked, lifting a brow. "Just when I thought he was turning things around, what did he do this time?"
"Partied in his Iron Man suit," Ben informed, his face much more serious than it had been just seconds earlier. "Apparently his military friend got his hands on one of the other suits, the two briefly fought and then Colonel Rhodes even managed to run off with the thing… according to my sources."
If I had been drinking, this would've been a spite take moment.
"That's worrying," Was my response instead, dragging the file out from Ben's hold. "And hopefully something that I won't have to deal with later."
"What plan on getting into a fight with the US Military?" he whispered to me, trying to keep this part of the conversation away from curious ears.
"Heck no, I'm just worried about mech suits getting passed around to Police Units in the future," I informed him, remembering briefly the stories of military hardware getting passed to such units in my own universe, one where there wasn't the chance of a Hulk dropping in on you. Here, Some Police Units will be chomping at the bit to get their hands on this stuff, especially if the American Government spends as much on their weapons as I think they will. "Things will only escalate if that happens."
From there I realized that we had gotten off-topic, so I brought things back to what started this discussion.
"So from what I've gotten from her profile is that the Doctor's ego has gone through the roof," I said, running through the details out loud with Ben, an exercise that he started with me to help me work through things. The idea being that he'd ask me simple questions or to elaborate on somethings to get me truly thinking about the details and how they connect. "The Blackouts started in her building, though it's likely since they no longer happen in that apartment that the Doc's either shielded the place or has taken them to another building."
"Have you asked around about the times she leaves the building and they intersect with later blackouts?"
"Yeah, none of the other tenants I've asked notice her leaving around the same time blackouts. So I think the most likely idea is shielding the apartment."
"Good and you got any proof other than conjecture?" Ben asked, pointing his finger at me while taking a final gulp of his coffee. "Because remember, we can't print conjecture. Especially since we don't know what she's doing to cause the blackouts."
"Oh," I blinked, surprised by that statement since it was obvious. "She's trying to break through to other dimensions… maybe even another universe."
This time it was Ben's turn to blink, even going as far as to take off his glasses on rub on the bottom of his shirt. The older man only finally started to talk once more after he coughed, then open and shut his mouth several times.
"You know… isn't she a… and not... " Ben trailed off, his eyes searching for something in mine before he sighed. "You know if you weren't standing before me, I wouldn't believe you. So you think that this is the one, that Octavius is the one that brought you here?"
It was my turn to let out a sigh, one that was much heavier than the one Ben had let out. It would've been so simple if that was true if this woman was the one to have brought me here. The idea had some merit, her experimenting with multiple
"I don't think so," I shook my head, letting the finger on my right-hand twirl around the wood grain of the table. "At least not on purpose and even that wouldn't explain my powers."
"I've said before, it mightn't be connected."
It was something that Ben brought up early to me when I'd arrived to this world, that it was possible that my powers and my arrival to this world weren't connected. The only real issue was that I never really believed it unless I'd gotten the powers before arriving here and just didn't remember it but that seemed far too convenient for my liking.
"Maybe," I said instead of revealing to Ben what I really was thinking. It wouldn't do me any good to get into an argument with the man. "But that's what the next stage of my plan is for!"
"Really, you've actually made a plan?" There was a massive chuckle from the man since he knew that the previous plan I had in getting information was just straight asking for it.
I feel that he won't be impressed with this one either.
"I play to her ego," With my hands out wide and my eyes close, as if I was Randy Orton, proud of myself far more than I probably should be. "She seems into me, I go in with a hidden camera, Louise will be remotely viewing and taking a few still pics along with a video. I just need to have her show me her experiments, tell her that it… will… "
"Turn you on?" Ben grinned, chuckling once more and causing me to light up bright red, at least from what I could tell from the heat rushing up my cheeks.
"Y-yeah."
"I don't know," Ben spoke, his hands waving to catch my attention proper. "Sounds risky if the woman really is as smart as she says."
"Come on, she's off her rocker," I replied, grinning as I leaned forward slightly. "That's gotta take some of those IQ points down, and she's horny for… The P."
With my own thumb pointing at meself at the end of that sentence, Ben couldn't help the barrage of laughter that came out of his mouth.
"Okay, Cassanova," he said, once calming down from his fit but not before he knocked his fist against his chest, trying to cause pain in an attempt to stop it. "But please remember that this is the woman that tried to drug you. You don't know how strong some of the stuff the Doc's got access to is nor what drinking some of that would do to you."
Oh, allergic reactions. Hadn't actually thought of that; in fact, now I wondered what it would be like to drink milk. I'd been allergic to it before arriving here, a certain protein in it anyway. It was likely that I'd gotten over it, it wasn't uncommon for someone with my specific allergy to grow out of it.
But testing that wasn't something that I wanted to risk at any stage of my life. Milk was far too evil for me to ever take that chance.
Suddenly, I felt the air shift, the ground starting to crackle and burst with noise. My reaction speed, far above human norms, allowed me to grab Ben and move a few meters to the left while a pair of claws erupted from the concrete, destroying the table we had been sitting at but only showering tiny chunks on the innocent bystanders.
"Well, that's earlier than I would've thought," I grumbled, waiting for the familiar form of Doc Ock to raise from the hole in the street. But instead what I got were a metal sphere with a single red eye glaring down at me attached to four tentacles with the claws at the center of a rather chrome-looking body.
"Jesus!" Ben yelled out, reacting as a normal person would to a robot coming out of the ground. "We need to get out of here!"
"Yeah… " I trailed off walking away from the man and watching as the robot turned to keep me in its sight, "Not going to work for me."
I threw my jacket off and started to unbutton the top of my shirt, revealing the blue sports-top I'd been wearing underneath and slipping on a blue mask.
"So party time?"
The glaring red shot out a beam at me, one that I was forced to take head-on, in lieu of letting the innocent people around me getting hit by it. With my left palm, I shielded myself from the beam striking my chest, letting it instead grind against the palm and feebly try to push me back.
"A repulsor?" I couldn't help but question out loud. It was a cool weapon type to use, from what I could remember from the Iron Man animated series that is, having either two modes or two types. One was a non-lethal concussive style thing, something that would only push things away with large doses of force, and the lethal one that was closer to a laser, cutting through things. With my durability and strength, it was hard to tell what variation I was dealing with right now.
My contemplation of what kind of repulsor this was left me wide open to one of the robot's claws slashing down at me. Once more I was fast enough to move before it was able to hit me, letting the beam strike the spot in the ground that I'd been standing on.
"Oh," I waggled my finger at the bot, grinning madly. "So close, try again."
Using the seconds that I had before the robot tried something else, my eyes scanned the robotic tentacles with as much of a zoom function that I may as well have been using a microscope. It wasn't long before I noticed something really odd.
"Stainless steel?" Before I could regain my bearings, my ears picked up the sound of the servos whirling up. This gave me just enough time to respond so I could grab one of the claws mid-swing and tear off the blade portion. Then I threw it right into the single eye of the robot, causing it to collapse in a boneless heap.
"Huh," I took a look around, glancing at the bewildered and frightened people who were staring at me and the robot as if we were about to explode at any moment. "Thought that would take longer."
Which was the moment that two more sets of claws burst from the asphalt around me and caught me in their grip. The metal groaned as it pressed against my body, cutting the clothes but not having the ability to get through my skin.
"Spoke too soon, didn't I?"
(Olivia Octavius)
"YES! I HAVE CAPTURED THE TARGET!" Liv yelled out, throwing a hand up into the air and taking her hands from the controls. "Though, I'm now out of kitchenware," she said, thoughtfully scratching at her scalp while peering over to the empty draws laid out on the floor. "Looks like it's plastic folks for me for the next few weeks."
This is what happens when you need robots quickly and already spent your funds on other projects prior to this.
In front of the woman sat a large computer monitor, showcasing the capture of the now masked Pat Doyle in between the claws of two of her robots. In her manic glee, the woman didn't even notice how unconcerned the man was, just that she had succeeded in capturing him.
"Now I can verify the odd readings of this young man my equipment gave me yesterday," she muttered, continuing to grin as the Doctor weaved her fingers together like she was Mister Burns from the Simpsons. "Not to mention that trick he did to defend against the repulsor."
That was something Liv just needed to know.
Without waiting for anything else, she typed away at the controls, signaling for the robots to return to her, not to the apartment mind you, but to a lab/base that she'd set up near a sewer access tunnel. Hopefully, that would mask her involvement long enough to… dissect the body. That would give all the materials that she'd need to conduct experiments. Doctor Octavius hummed as she stood to her feet, very slowly making her way around the room to pick her things. A coat, her normal glasses, not her goggles as she usually wore, and a pair of sneakers with red stripes.
"Oh… the things that I do for the-" Whatever speech the woman was about to give to the empty room was interrupted by a series of loud, rushed knocks to her front door. Liv rolled her eyes and sneered at the air as she turned around and made her way towards the object that had offended her.
There were more knocks, these far louder than the last set before Liv ever reached the door.
"Coming!" Dr. Octavius yelled, holding back the groans the woman could feel trying to escape from her throat. When she finally opened the door the scientist couldn't manage to keep the noise inside and groaned out; "Oh, it's you."
The man's name was Grant, a tall enough man, good looking, well built. But so obviously a spy that it made her head hurt. He thought himself so charming too, Liv wasn't sure she'd seen a spy so dumb that they thought their cover as a newlywed would be helped by flirting with the target. But Grant seemed to think he was charming enough to pull it off and truthfully the Doctor had to agree. He was both charming enough and hot enough to pull off the seduction angle...
… if she hadn't already had his employers hacked years ago and therefore had access to the man's file.
"Hello, Liv," he smiled, his shiny white teeth and chiseled grin sending chills down her body, not due to attraction but instead disgust at his blatant attempt at charming his way into her apartment. "Looks like there's been a fire up a few floors, we've been called out for safety."
The Doctor searched the man over, looking for the signs that he was lying. Not that she expected the spy to be so easy to read, just that this was a lie so easily proven false that she was surprised he tried it.
Since the fire alarm hadn't gone off.
As she raised her right hand to point to the ceiling and mention this fact… the fire alarm actually started to ring out. When Liv looked up briefly and then back to Grant himself, she found him grinning, all sly like as if it wasn't possible that he'd set that up. But it wouldn't matter if the man and his group were given access to the apartment right now.
"Well… that's bad, I'll just have to make haste out of the building, right?" The rather swift shift in her tone from the first half of the sentence to the second seemed to bother the man but since Grant was getting what he asked for, there wasn't anything he could say to that. Else the spy would only worsen the Doctor's suspicions.
So Olivia left Grant standing in the hall, closing her apartment door but not locking it as she made her way to the nearby stairwell. When she reached the floor below, she pushed a button on her watch… starting a timer.
"That should get rid of those flies," Doctor Octavius giggled, making the rest of the ways downstairs knowing that things were going better than planned. In under an hour, her spy problem will be out of the way. In under five hours though?
Then she'd have a prime specimen and her greatest experiment would commence.
"It's good to be me."
(Matt Murdock)
It wasn't luck that he'd been there for the robot attack, he'd been following the man from the docks for about two weeks. Noticed his rather unique nature after running into him, of course, one would think it's hard to find a man that Matt had never seen the face of but the soon-to-be Lawyer was an old hand at that…
… given he was blind.
Though it had been only luck that he'd run into the man a few weeks earlier, even overheard that his name was Pat. And today was one of the days that Matt's schedule seemed to coincide with the mysterious vigilante's, something that he had planned on finally using to meet with the guy once more.
But then robots erupted out of the ground, the first getting taken out easily by the blue vigilante but then when a pair arrived and grabbed him from underneath the street. It seemed to be too much for the superpowered man so he was dragged into the sewers by them.
"And I really liked this suit," Matt couldn't help but mumble, digging out the cloth he kept on hand for his half mask and trying it around his face, he'd already been near an alley so it was easy for him to change into his black gear and store his normal clothes behind a garbage bin. Luckily for him, they wouldn't be collected for another two days so Matt could afford to leave his things there. Without needing to look around for one, Matt was able to find a manhole leading to the same sort of service sewer tunnel that the robots had dragged Pat into, his senses telling him that the two were connected by a passage only a few feet ahead.
Murdock knew that it would be hard to keep up with the robots, their long mechanical legs meant they wouldn't have to worry about slipping or stamina like Matt would but at the same time. The blind man also knew from the sound and shapes of the legs that they'd be slowed down by the small size of the tunnels, especially given that they needed to keep their prey locked down.
In fact, Matt could hear the whirring and clicking of their innards even now, telling him that there wasn't much distance between them. Moving as fast as he could, the blind vigilante sprinted through the tunnels, using all the training he'd been given to move silently, just in case the robots had the capability to hear him coming.
But he also made sure to not go too fast, it wouldn't be good to be caught by running into them before they reached their destination.
There was some light talk echoing from the walls, the sound of Pat attempting to make light conversation with his capturers.
"You know… it's neat being captured by such famous people," he spoke, much to Matt's confusion. "But crime isn't the answer guys, I know the reboot of the War Of the Worlds re-cast you guys and it's made income hard to come by, but that's no excuse for damaging public… and probably private, properties."
There was a chime from one of the bots, something that almost sounded like a response to the man's words.
"Hey now!" Pat griped, his voice flat. "I didn't insult your mother."
Another chime.
This time there wasn't another response till they reached another sewer access point about an hour later; something that Matt could tell only due to the noises from the street that could be heard nearby. There was a clang of metal on metal, the sound of a sliding door opening to reveal a hidden room, one that the blind man hadn't bothered to pay any real attention to.
"You know this isn't more than like a five-minute jog from where I'd been?" Pat asked, the confusion in his voice sounding genuine to Matt's ears. "Wouldn't a base like somewhere further away be better? Police will be searching for you guys, this close, it would be easy to track the stainless steel robots."
There was another series of chimes, this time each robot made their own before Pat responded once more with the air of someone that stubbed their toe lightly rather than having been abducted;
"You can at least try," he whined while Matt pressed his ear against the now-closed entrance to this secret sewer base. "I mean, you don't even have any of those really cool-looking electrical balls or cylinders that shoot lighting. What kind of half-arsed secret evil lab have I been taken too?"
Matt had to give his fellow vigilante this at least, Pat was fearless.
It was at that moment that his ears perked up as the sound of shoes hitting against the cold concrete floor started to emit from the secret lab. Whoever this person was, it was a woman, not too tall, not the fittest person he'd ever met but she certainly would be someone that could defend themselves from a mugger.
"Ah, Mr. Doyle," she spoke, using smooth almost flirting tones, tinged with just a smidge of danger. Matt knew that he couldn't wait out here for long, so ran his fingers along the walls, searching for a way in beside the one that had been revealed.
"Ah… kinda hot science lady… good to see you, I'd wave but I'm a bit tied up at the moment."
"Cute," The woman responded, right as Matt found a vent, something that seemed to lead to the inside of the room. It was large, something that told him that this place needed to be kept cool for some reason; which given Pat called it an evil lab would make sense if the equipment needed to be kept below a certain temperature.
"Do you know why I brought you here?" The Robot's Creator spoke, her hand tapping against some rectangular object in her hand. Matt couldn't be sure from this far away if it was a tablet but the reverb that came from it at least seemed to imply that it was.
"..." Strangely Pat didn't respond, a first since this situation had started Matt noted. But the blind man could hear the other man's heart start to race, he could even hear as Pat started to open and close his mouth a few times.
It seems he was tongue-tied.
"Silence won't stop what's about to happen."
"Well, Doctor… I don't think rape is the best answer for a dry spell."
This caused Matt to pause, and from what he could tell, it also caused the Doctor to pause mid-step. He let the sentence give as much pause as it did the Doctor, instead of shuffling forward with even more urgency than ever, dragging himself up as the vent shifted positions towards the ceiling.
"I'm not going to rape you," her voice shrilly passing through the air. "I'm-"
"-I know that you might think that I want it," Pat interpreted her, causing her stance to tense up, and her feet to squirm in place. "But even for guys, no means no."
Matt barely managed to stop the chuckle that threatened to erupt from his mouth, something that would have revealed his location to the people in the lab. He could imagine that his fellow vigilante was grinning madly… or scared shitless if this wasn't the other man playing around here.
"I'M NOT GOING TO RAPE YOU!" She ended up screaming at the man. This declaration coincided with Matt arriving at the vent cover directly above the woman, waiting for his time to act.
"Oh, thank god," Pat sighed, leaning his chin against the steel of the robot. It seemed that the man had realized exactly what the woman had claimed she was going to do. "I… mean… how dare you!"
"Please," The woman scoffed, her head shifting upwards, causing Matt to gently shift back from the vent cover. It wasn't like he needed to see the woman after all. "I assumed an alien-like yourself would've realized that he'd be noticed eventually. Truly this was inevitable."
"Oh, I did," Pat admitted brazenly, much to Matt's surprise. "I just didn't expect it to be by some lady operating out of a sewer, thought that it would be the US government," There was a large sigh from the man like he hated speaking about the subject. "Gotta ask though, why do you even need to dissect me? What does that actually get you, Liv?"
"Data on what it takes to survive dimensional travel," Liv revealed, her hands coming up to stroke her robotic creations like one would a dog. "While I've managed to send small mechanical beings through the bleed between universes fine. Any organic material is shredded… then I met you. Your body gives off all the same energy readings that my sensors have read when passing through the Bleed. You appear tough enough to survive the transition."
"Wouldn't a living subject get you better data?"
"There's some data that I can only get from literally picking at your brain."
It was then that a dead silence dominated through the room, stopping Matt from getting into position for his eventual ambush of the woman. If he moved too much now, then he'd only get himself caught by the woman.
"There… " Pat attempted to speak only to trail off. It was obvious to Matt that the man was buying time, time that the Doctor was more than happy to give the man.
"There what?" she responded, leaning closer to Pat, given the hidden vigilante time between the movement and words to move back to the grate. "Go on, I can tell you're just dying to ask something."
"Haha," the man responded dryly. "What made you shift focus? I'd read that your main interest was cybernetics, not… inter-universal travel?" he said the term like it was a dirty word, something forbidden and not meant to be talked about. Which given that he was apparently an alien, Matt could presume it could be where he's from.
"Oh, why don't I just say divine intervention and leave it at that."
Before Pat could even bother to question what that meant, and Matt could tell he wanted to from heartbeat alone, there was a loud buzzing noise that echoed throughout the room. It reminded Matt of the sound that an electric cooker or stove would make once their timers would run out.
"Left something in the oven?" Pat mocked, then Matt could oddly hear him suck in a large portion of air like the bots were crushing and he needed to gasp for it… but there wasn't a single motor moving from what he could hear, what was he doing?
"Of course not," she scoffed, her steps marking her position for Matt as Liv made her way towards a console, something that seemed to be cobbled together from laptop parts mixed with an old office desktop. "It's just Phase One is about to start."
"That's your apartment building?" Pat's voice finally sounded truly shocked, so much so that he even let go of the breath he had been holding in.
"Yes, see I'm testing if the building being sent over helps to shield people on the trip, even if it doesn't there's plenty of data to be had from sending over so much material at once," Liv replied to him as if he was asking a question, rather than being shocked.
"My god, you are a mad scientist."
"I'm not mad-"
"-Fine, you're an angry scientist."
"Ignore him, Liv, he's just like the kids in high school," she whispered to herself, so low that Matt was sure those with unheightened hearing couldn't hear her. Then the woman took a deep breath and gathered herself up to speak with a far more sinister tone. "This isn't just about the potential data this experiment will gather but it will also remove those pesky SHIELD Agents that were spying on me."
"Those two were SHIELD Agents?" The captured man exclaimed, sounding more shocked than he'd been about anything else.
"You didn't know?" The Doctor gloated, the glee in her voice vibrating off the walls of the lab. This was a woman that took pleasure in being smarter than all those around if given the chance she'd relish showing it off.
"I knew that they were spies but… " Pat clicked his tongue off the roof of his mouth. "I thought SHIELD Agents would be better at spying, they couldn't even fool me."
"In any case, those Agents will be disposed of in another hour."
It was as she was shrugging that Matt made his move, bursting out of the vent and fling his walking stick right at the woman's throat, before sprinting after it. Sadly for the blind vigilante his senses couldn't warn him in time of the set of tentacles that sprouted out of her back, the first one whacking away his stick while a second tried to impale him.
It was only a miracle that a rogue gust entered the room and flung Matt out of the path, slamming him into a wall.
"What the hell?" Liv whined, stamping her foot on the ground. "I had him."
Before Matt could really think of how he was saved, Pat blew hard on the robots that surrounded him, icing them over before flexing his muscles and shattering his way out of their grip.
"My babies!" The Doctor yelled something that seemed to have brought a smile to the formerly captured man's lips.
"That's what you get for making them out of stainless steel."
"I was improvising!"
("Betty")
"Well, isn't this an odd place for a kid," Betty snarked, walking around a couch while a rather tall redheaded girl rooted around in the cabinets of Octavius' apartment. The non-SHIELD intruder turned around slowly, almost naturally to Betty's eyes as if she truly belonged here.
Of course, since Betty'd been monitoring the building for a few months now, she knew that this girl had never been here before.
"Well… this is an odd place for someone that lives two floors up to be," The girl responded smoothly, not missing a single beat and even going as far as to smile at Betty. Sadly this meant Betty couldn't afford to let this charade go on much longer. Her superiors had given her a deadline.
"Right, I don't have time for this," Betty reached into her chest pocket and pulled out a wallet, showcasing an I.D, and badge. "The names Bobbi Morse, Agent working for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division."
"That's a mouthful," The girl replied, tapping her foot along the floor, her body language alone telling the Agent that she hadn't dropped her guard. An interesting response to being told that a government agent was confronting you after you've broken into an apartment.
"Don't believe it?" Morse couldn't help but ask, buying time for the rest of her team to arrive just in case this kid had some trick up her sleeves. Bobbi had heard the rumors about that woman with super strength in Europe or that girl from a few years ago that survived a car crash and came out with the same, so with those two in mind, Bobbi wasn't interested in taking any risks.
"Never heard of that mouthful of an organization," she shrugged, not bothering to say out the full name and stepping a few more feet towards the Agent. From what Bobbi could see, the ripped state of the young girl could make a fight between the two tougher than the girl's age would suggest. "And I've seen enough fake badges that look legit that I don't trust any."
Bobbi couldn't help but groan, it seemed that she'd been saddled with a street smart child burglar. Thankfully for her nerves, the buzzing sound from her earpiece signaled that her companions were just waiting for the all-clear sign.
Which meant that it was much safer to do this.
"What's your name?" Bobbi asked, having pulled out her gun and pointing towards the young girl. There wasn't any sort of nervous reaction, not like one would expect from a teen getting a pistol pointed at them.
"Lois," The clear lie didn't do anything to help with the tension that the woman could feel building up in the room. Like a powder keg, one wrong move and the girl would blow. "So what's an agent like you doing here?"
For just a second Lois's face flinched as Bobbi glared, revealing that a lot of this behavior was a mask to keep Bobbi from seeing how scared the young girl was. The Agent lowered her gun, though keeping her limb ready to bring it back up.
"I'm asking the questions here," Bobbi claimed, finally taking in the appearance of this Lois in full detail. The girl was too well dressed to be a burglar, at least one that would rob from this apartment. "What are you here for?"
Lois just stared at Bobbi, something that the Agent was more than willing to accommodate. As the door swung open and Grant came walking in, something that caused the youngest person in the room to actually step into a fighting stance.
"Come in at a bad time ladies?" Grant grinned, having taken note of the gun but not bothering to draw his own. "Because I can come back when you've gotten everything sorted out."
"Shut up, Grant," The fellow Agent mumbled, leveling a glare at the man. "Just prep the room for the techies."
"How about this," Lois spoke up suddenly, eyeing Grant like he was dirt Bobbi had dragged into the room. "Quid pro quo, you tell me what you're looking for, maybe I help you and I just leave."
Bobbi glanced around the room, noting that the girl mustn't have been here longer than a few minutes at most. Though the secret agent did find it impressive that Lois had even gotten into the building without her people spotting her.
"Fine," Morse sighed, something that if the groan from Grant was any indication, her current partner didn't agree with. "We're looking into Miss Octavius for dangerous experiments and having a procession of illegal materials."
There wasn't much more Bobbi could divulge to the young girl than those details, her being a civilian and all.
"Well… in that case," Lois nodded her head towards a door, one that once had a steel bolt covering it but now it hung limply in the air. "Might want to check out that door."
Without even being given the order, Grant was already on his way, his own side-arm raised in the air in case of any traps left there by the good Doctor. Slowly he opened the door, his face morphing into something close to utter awe and confusion.
"What the hell!" Grant exclaimed, causing Bobbi to slowly shift positions till she was standing next to him, though keeping the young redhead in her side vision. "Is that a Stargate?"
"Huh," she couldn't help but tilt her head at the sight of a very Stargate-like object, the only difference being that it was segmented rather than being one whole unit, and its size only being around six feet in diameter compared to the twenty feet. "It is."
Sadly for the agents, before they could even attempt to approach or more likely call on tech support to check the device over first. It started to strobe red and lift into the air, spinning around at ever-increasing speeds. Eventually splitting apart and blasting out of a window nearby.
"That can't be good."
"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Bobbi couldn't help but growl, her head popping out of the window to watch as the segments started to circle the entire apartment building. "Here I was thinking the spinning device made by the dangerous scientist was a good thing."
Author's Note: Hello true believers, it is I, Pro-man! And I am here to bring you another chapter from the dept of my inane mind! It will bring together characters that you didn't even conceive of! Or maybe I'm just hyping things up a bit much and you should just take things as they come rather than as I want them.
Also, just a kindly reminder, just because someone says or thinks something, doesn't make it true.
This is a tough chapter to write, but enjoyable all the same. Now we see the mind of Doc Ock in this world, while at the same time getting a tiny hint at why she's the way she is. Don't think that you'll guess why by the way, none of you can because the hint is a very obscure reference to a single sign in a not too well-liked comic.
You'd never guess what, the character's not usually referred to in that way.
- Location
- france
Oh, her.
Yeah, I remember her... I preferred her comic book version. Hello, Mockingbird. You'll excuse me that I confounded you with the redhead Natasha, right?
And, of course, your partner is Grant Ward and not Hawkeye.
Chapter 7
- Location
- Ireland
(Pat Doyle)
I liked to gamble, mostly because while I knew I was smarter than the average person, I also knew that I wouldn't even break the top hundred smartest people in this world, hell I wouldn't have done so well on my own Earth as well.
Now I didn't gamble with money, I wasn't that dumb.
I gambled with my life.
Which isn't as big of an issue now as it was when I was young.
The second that I'd been caught by the robots, an idea leaped into my head; just let them carry me off to the big bad's base, it's no big deal. These guys are constructed from stainless fucking steel, there's as much a chance that they'll overheat as actually harm me. And my gamble paid off, I was taken to the Ock's lair… I just hadn't expected the man in black from the docks to magically show up as soon as trouble starts. Hadn't expected that I'd need to save his ass either but that was fine.
More hands-on-deck was always welcomed.
"So what-" Before I could finish that sentence, one of the Doc's claws opened up, revealing a dark red glow that soon exploded out towards me like a raging fire out of the back of a rocket heading towards the moon.
So I punched it.
It turned out that the blast had been far more solid than one would've thought, the impact from my fist was enough to fling off into the ceiling, cracking and burning the concrete as if it was plastic. Sadly for me, I'd failed to take into account the electrical wiring that was routed above us, the blast neatly cutting through and causing it to fall into halves around me, sparkling as it had been part of Thor's hammer.
I didn't take heed of it, letting it slap against me back… which…
"FUUUUCK!"
… hurt, causing my body to leap forward while I waved my arms ahead.
"I have you now-" Doc Ock said, her grin wide and her tentacles shooting forward in an attempt to impale me on their claws but it wasn't to be. Instead, they clanged off my body, bending back as my right fist whacked the woman in the chest.
Going back first, the Doctor slammed into a table, breaking it in half and leaving her groaning in pain. The Mechanical limbs on her back were in bits, metal plates sliding along the ground till they reached my feet.
"Sor-" I cut myself off before I could finish the automatic apology. "I mean… oh… yeah!"
"Smooth," The Man in Black spoke, standing up with a hand holding what was no doubt a rather sore back, from having been smashed into a wall by the force of my breath not a minute prior. "She might be a sewer genius but she ain't never accounted for the fumbling of a super-powered alien."
"Hey," Mocking a frown, I placed a hand on my chest, imitating a really insulted baron. "I do not fumble… I stumble. Big difference."
Taking a glance at my fellow vigilante, for as little of that sort of act I've ever done, I decided to take a peek under his mask. My vision cut through the layers of cloth that made his mask, letting me take a peek at the handsome enough man that was beneath. And more importantly, the eyes that were staring blankly at the world in front of him.
Even with my limited knowledge of Marvel Superheroes, which mostly came from the old 90's X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons, I knew that there were very few blind superheroes living around Hell's Kitchen. So that meant this was Matt Murdock, DareDevil.
"Sure there is," He smirked, walking closer to the still groaning Super-Villain and poking at her with his foot. Eventually, as his head pretended to scan up and down the woman's still body, Matt sighed.
"I'm sensing a problem here?" I said, walking towards a desk that hadn't been broken by anyone's body. There was a computer on it you see, a laptop to be more exact, something that I could use to figure out how to stop her plan of sending her neighbor into the voice between universes. "Fuck."
"Yeah, I'm not good with computers either, " Matt spoke, seemingly having predicted this problem before it even came to my mind to look at the computer. The thing was password-protected, and I doubt either me or the blind man could break the security that Octavius would use. "There's only one thing we can do."
There was a low hiss to his voice at that last sentence, causing me to turn back to face him limping close to the woman. Not liking the implications alone, I stalked forward and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"What's your plan?"
He turned his head, not like a normal person would to see a person as they were talking to them but instead Matt was leaning forward so his ears were facing me in just the right way that I was between the two of them.
I wonder if he was having issues reading my heartbeat? Was my body too dense? Did the beat sound different from other people's? I could hear others and my own too, but I usually drowned it out due to how distracting hearing my own heartbeat was. I didn't analyze it.
"There's only one person here that knows that password for that computer," he said eventually, one of his hands coming up to point at the device, almost lazily. "Her," With a rapid turn, his other arm pointed to the downed Octopus. "And from what I heard, if we don't figure out how to stop her experiment a lot of people will die."
"Right and that's fair and all," I shrugged, walking around him till I was standing between Matt and Octavius. "But that doesn't answer my question, what are you going to do?"
"I think you know," Matt replied, his voice low, his tone hard.
I sighed, closing my eyes and rubbing the bridge of my nose rapidly for a few moments of time that lasted longer for me than it would for anyone else in the world. This was a tough spot… but even then, even with what was at stake here.
Couldn't condone it.
"Torture isn't reliable enough nor do even have the time to break someone," I placed my hand into my pants' pocket, rooting around in there for a second to pull out my phone. The other vigilante took this time to walk around me, an action that I preempted by walking in step with him, keeping him on my right side, while Octavius was on my left.
"We don't have time for anything else unless you've got a computer genius on speed dial? I don't see how we stop this from happening," It was said sarcastically, and while I didn't have a number for such a man, Louise did.
"I've got ya there," I said, holding up the phone, pretending that I didn't know that Matt was blind and therefore wouldn't be able to tell what was in front of him. "Calling her now."
The phone rang, the tone filling my ear as I waited for Louise to pick.
"Hey, L," I spoke quickly, not letting her get the first response. "Someone can overhear, Codenames only."
There was a large intake of breath, audible to anyone at either side of the call.
"I'm not calling you, Lugh."
"Yes," I grinned. "Yes, you are."
"Why am I, L, but you get to be named after a god?" Louise asked me, her tone annoyed.
"Because you're smarter than me?" I replied, trying for the buttering her up approach in getting her to call me Lugh.
"Anyway, I need a hand," she started, seeming to drop the subject,
"Well… so do I?" There was a rather annoyed sounding sigh that came from her lips Then a few seconds passed before Louise continued.
"Is it life or death?" She asked, causing me to glance over to the screen in front of me, sweat actually forming on my brow from the anxiety this was causing me.
"Yup."
"So is mine."
That was bad news.
(Lois otherwise known as Louise)
She finished explaining and finished listening to the life and death situations that the two had found themselves in. The only good thing that Louise was sure that came from this was how they were dealing with the same problem, just at different ends.
Sadly, Pat was on the wrong side of this problem.
Nothing he could smash his way out of where he was.
"Right, get here," Louise said, having ignored the pit that she could feel gathering in her stomach. Her hand unconsciously rubbed the area as if trying to push the feeling down deeper into her body. "I'm pretty sure that you could just smash the devices."
"I don't know," She could hear how Pat was scratching at his neck as he was deciding between two options that were just as bad as each other. "I… think it would be a good idea if I didn't destroy the tech that is possibly… radioactive?"
Louise didn't even miss a beat at this news, turning to the agents that were huddled by the windows. The man, Grant, was still pointing his gun at the younger woman, something that annoyed both Louise and his partner Bobbi Morse.
"Hey, you guys' got anything like a Geiger Counter?"
The two agents briefly glanced at each other, Grant appears to be the most confused by the question while Bobbi simply reached into her back pocket and threw out a yellow gameboy-looking device.
"Why do you have that?" Grant asked, clicking his tongue and shutting his eyes together from confusion.
"We're monitoring a scientist with access to dangerous materials," Bobbi responded, her tone indicating a level of heat that Louise took time to note down, not wanting to take any action that would escalate this sort of mood. At least not in this situation. "I've got a lot more than a Geiger counter on me."
Its screen lit up in a dim blue glow that barely managed to create a viewable image. The numbers were zero, as Louise had expected, it would make sense that someone trying to hide the beginning stages of their work like Octavius was, would keep away from any power source that could be easily detectable.
"Nope." Louise then spoke back into the phone. "Seems that yo-"
It was at that moment that the room shook once more, the sounds of screaming started to emit from the streets below them. The cause of this outbreak from the people outside was shown to the occupants of the apartment when two large claws struck the sides of the nearest window, digging into the frame and throwing it out to the street below.
Without any hesitance, Louise was thrown to the floor by Grant, while Bobbi opened fire with her nine-millimeter pistol at the joints of the robot that was rapidly ascending up the side of the building. As it passed the red glowing eye peered inside, showcasing its massive size, almost the same you'd expect out of a mini-van or a larger car. This was something that the two agents noticed and diverted their fire towards but like before the rounds bounced off harmlessly.
Harmlessly to the robot, but for Grant, not so much. Gunfire ricocheted back at the SHIELD Agent, hitting him in the thigh and causing him to fall to the floor in pain.
"Fuck," The man growled, looking angry at himself for even trying to damage the machine with such small caliber weapons. "Fucking hell, need a medic."
Bobbi stopped her own assault, rolling to the ground and pulling off her jacket, she wrapped the cloth around the wound, putting pressure on it. Then she looked back towards the robot, who by now had resumed its trek up the building, and pressed against a spot on her jumper.
"This is Agent Morse, I need a bus," The older woman spoke into her jumper, using the term that many police officers are taught to use when referring to an ambulance. Calling it a bus was just faster. "I repeat, I need a bus, Agent is down, requesting a bus and heavy grade reinforcements."
Louise couldn't hear the response that was no doubt on the other end of that call, but she was almost sure that heavy grade reinforcements would be a welcome treat. But rather than flying the US colors, she'd prefer if her backup was… bluer.
"Lugh," Louise found herself growling at going along with such a name but knew that it wasn't the time that argument. "You gotta get here, we're being attacked by a robot with tentacles and claws."
(Pat Doyle)
"You know… I think she's in trouble," I spoke, acting dumb since the phone has finally ended. The act was for the Doctor, I could tell that she was now awake, something that the woman was attempting to hide by leaving her eyes shut, I wanted her to think that I was dumb.
At least when it comes to non-science matters, since that ship sailed back when I had first met her.
"You don't say," Matt smiled awkwardly, seemly not sure how to take such a statement. He shifted his stance, leaning on his right foot solely, in his hand now was a steel pipe, something that, due to my focus on the phone call, I hadn't noticed him picking up. "Sounds like you should hurry over there, I'll deal with things on this end."
I knew what that meant and that style of 24 operations didn't sit well for me. So I leaned in, coming close to his ear, trying to think of some line that would convince him not to do what i could he wanted.
"Matt… I wouldn't do anything that would end up pointless."
It was his eyes, though they were blank they didn't lack expression, turns out that even becoming blind didn't train out the way people are expressive when caught by surprise.
Before doing anything, like leaving what amounted to a normal human with one of the smartest people in the world, I scanned the room with my collection of visionary powers, checking for traps, though finding none, and eventually finding a taser hidden in a nearby drawer. I moved fast, pulling the thing open, grabbing the taser, and bluing back before anyone could even figure out that I moved.
"This," I said, handing him the taser. "Is what I want you to use to take her out if it looks to get up. I don't want to come back and see blood splattered back over this place… from either of you."
With that warning given, I ran off in a burst of super speed that at this point in time I doubt that anyone could match. Knowing that I had wasted some time trying to intimidate the soon-to-be Daredevil, I pushed myself forward, pushed myself to move faster than I'd ever had before. Moving at such high speeds that I was surprised that there wasn't some sort of sonic boom while also committing to turns in the roads that even the best drivers wouldn't attempt at such speeds.
The world around me was a blur of colors, though not as much as I thought it should be, just the same amount that I'd expect from someone that turned around too fast. When I finally made it to the front of the apartment, I was breathing heavily, the strain that I placed on my stamina only just hit me as I stopped. But I wasn't so much exhausted as I was out of breath, having not used proper breathing as I had been reading.
I looked up, which only meant that I was hit in the face by a rather powerful beam. The force took me off guard, shoving me to the ground with a crash while the searing heat of the beam started to eat through the cloth mask with minor resistance, leaving me with half a mask covering my face.
By the time that the attack faded and I stood back up, I could feel the left side of my face burning, while the city air hit against the hot skin that was now revealed to the world.
"Shit," I swore, my hands clenching as I glared up at the biggest robots that I faced this evening, standing tall on the roof of the building. It was at least big enough to fit three people inside it, so it was little wonder that its weapons packed a bigger punch than those of its smaller brethren.
This time I was watching as the beam started to charge up, managing to move out of the way and letting the red splash against the concrete, smashing it up but not doing much else. I bent my knees, but before I could even attempt the leap at the mechanic menace, an explosion from the other side of the thing caused it to shift forward from the pressure of the impact.
There was no waiting for me though, I leaped up into the sky, my powerful legs propelling me higher than should've ever been possible, letting me reach the robot within a single second.
It was also then that I realized that it wasn't just the robot's large size that set it apart from the others that I've faced, it was also the materials it was built with. Where those earlier ones were made from stainless steel, a decision that even now confuses me, this was made from tougher metal, stuff that I'd never personally seen since getting my powers. But that wasn't important in this case, my fist impaled it all the same. I could feel the wires contained within sizzle and spark against the skin of my knuckles even as I continued to rise higher into the sky, the robot now being carried with me.
I could hear a woman yell from below me something along the lines of "Jesus Christ!" as I started to near a spinning metal donut a couple of dozen meters above the apartment building.
It was then that something odd happened.
The robot and I… bounced off nothing, several meters away from the device and being flung off into the city below.
"Oh, fucking come on!"
(Matt Murdock)
It wasn't like Matt wanted to commit such an act, in fact, it would weigh heavy on his conscience, it would even leave a dark stain on his soul. But that didn't mean he wouldn't. It just meant that he understood that for many what he was about to do was wrong.
"You can stop pretending," he warned the woman, snapping his foot against her chin and sending Octavius tumbling to the side and off the broken pieces of the desk. "You're not fooling anyone."
The Doctor giggled, delighted about something that the vigilante could only guess at as she rolled onto her back once more, her bloody grin facing the sky, at least according to the blind man's sense of smell.
"Oh!" she said, continuing to giggle along the way. "Not five minutes without your blue comrade and you already start the torture. How dangerous."
Showcasing how much self-control Matt had, he didn't let how much inner turmoil he had with this action show on what little of his face that someone could see. Instead, he just set his mouth in a frown and pressed the activation button on the taser, causing it to spark.
"Well, a taser that's going to get me talki-" Before the Doctor could finish her gloat, Matt stabbed the taser into her chest, the woman convulsed on the floor, her head hitting hard against the concrete and causing a wet thwack.
Matt waited for Octavius to stop groaning in pain before he spoke once more.
"Willing to talk now?" he asked, his voice coming out as a low growl as he leaned in closer to the Doctor, his masked face nearly pressing against her goggled visage.
"Did you know… the letter J is the only letter that doesn't appear on the periodic table?"
Before the masked vigilante could even respond to the rather random fact thrown way a tentacle shot out of the Doctor's back. Matt barely managed to roll out away from it, the sparking mechanical limbs scraping across the floor as the claws sliced through the outermost edge of the man's skin near his shin.
Red splashed against the floor, pouring out of the flesh wound as the man was a wrestling blading.
"I'm sorry… did you think that I'd just sit down and take it while you tortured me?" Octavius questioned, her form rising as the lower two tentacles lifted her up, a third one shutting out in front of her body while the fourth only twitched, hanging loosely from her back.
Broken and sparking.
Matt took a second bend his leg experimentally, ignoring the sting of the wound and testing to see if there was any give to it. There wasn't.
"Thought you might," he replied, hopping from one foot to another while grinning. The taser sparked to life as Matt's senses took in the whirling of servos that operated the limbs, the blind man could even make out the noise as one of them spluttered and nearly petered out. "If your taste in outfits is any indication."
Of course, the man couldn't even tell the color of her clothes, being blind and all.
"Says one color Charlie," The Doctor mocked, a snap of one of the claws singling that she'd grabbed something behind her. Some sort of remote control if Matt was able to perceive the object right. "How about we shift away from fashion… and onto the final countdown!"
With a press of a button, the displays around the room flashed till they were showing the numbers counting down… 10:00… 09:59 and so on and so forth… something that Matt wasn't able to see… given that he was blind, but Octavius didn't know this.
"You have ten minutes to try and get the password off me," There was a clatter of metal in the air, allowing Matt to move out of the way in time to avoid the grasp of the Doctor, rolling under their reach while also advancing forward.
Matt avoided the loose wires that were still sparking with power as he jabbed the taser in between the metal plates that composed the tentacle nearby. He could feel the heat explode off the mechanical limb as it spluttered to the floor. But sadly for the vigilante, his taser exploded in his hand, it was only luck that let him fling the device away with only minor injury to the hand holding it.
Octavius simply raised a brow, her smile deadly even as she had lost another tentacle.
"A somewhat equal exchange," She let her two remaining tentacles shift her down to the ground, letting them hang freely in the air. "But I think you'll find that I have more limbs to lose than you do!"
With a crackling laugh, Octavius' tentacle shot out claws at the man. This time though, Matt's foot kicked up a plank of wood shielding him from the danger and allowing him to use his injured foot to smack the attack back at the woman.
But a tentacle snapped at it, having somehow gained a new set of claws within the seconds this all took place. Then the Doctor sent the remaining tentacle in a swipe that nearly took out Matt's legs, only for him to leap over it before using his good hand to throw the sparkling cable he'd picked up at some stage at the woman.
Octavius didn't even have time to scream as the cable made contact with her forehead, the electrical energy surging into her with such force that her skin burned. Unlike when such a cable had stuck someone earlier that evening, this event lasted longer and also had a greater effect on the target.
The Doctor slumped to the floor, limp as a doll.
"Well, that didn't go as planned."
(Bobbi Morse)
"Well, that wasn't a total bust," Bobbi spoke, her eyes watching as the blue blur and the large robot fly into the distance cityscape. She threw down her compact missile launcher. "Got rid of that mechanical menace at least," there was a rush of movement from the roof exit, causing her to turn her head to face the incoming young Lois.
"Seems your backup went double KO with that robot," Bobbi motioned towards where the duo had flown off to. "Good for us," The older woman continued, her eyes now focused on the objective ahead. "It means that efforts can be focused on the real threat."
"Not at all concerned that there was a man that can leap tall buildings and punch robots hard enough for it to go two or three miles?" The younger asked, a brow raised. Bobbi thought that the girl had potential, she might even make a good agent with how cool she was under pressure.
"More concerned by the possible forming vortex of death above us right now."
"Fair."
The two women glared at the device with glares that would cause seasoned marines to wet themselves. They needed to stop it now before it was too late and it fully activated. They glanced around them, looking for something that could be used, but found none.
"Where's your backup?" The younger of the two asked, her eyes peering over the side of the roof with a questioning glance.
Bobbi couldn't help the scoff that erupted from her, though glad that she no longer needed to mask her reactions to keep up the appearance of a meek housewife. Even in such a tense and dangerous situation, this was a breath of fresh air for the agent of SHIELD.
"Not everyone's got someone who makes sports cars look slow," she eventually replied, her hand coming down to the ground, examining some scorch marks that Bobbi could deduce the origin of. "Look at this."
At the rather stern tone, the order had been given, the young Lois bent down to see the marks herself. She hummed thoughtfully, her eyes glancing back up to the spinning donut above her. It was familiar to the young girl, something that she recognized but her mind couldn't grasp just where she'd seen this before.
"Looks like a burn mark," Lois remarked, her eyes inspecting the circle pattern that made its form. "And from the looks of things, whatever caused it went straight up-" Suddenly, she stopped herself as if her mind realized something that didn't make sense. "It could be the donuts-"
"Donuts?" Bobbi stopped, blinking at the, to her, random phrase.
"The thing in the sky," The redhead groaned, sounding annoyed by even being asked that. "Anyway, I was saying it could be the donuts but that wouldn't work with how fresh the marks are, see we saw those things fly out the window. So these marks wouldn't be here if it was them… also looking at them. It seems that there's no visible sign of propulsion."
Bobbi was impressed, if not with the girl's vocabulary, at least with her deduction ability.
"Means we should keep an eye out," The SHIELD Agent informed her, bringing back out her pistol and checking the chamber. "We won't be able to do anything about the device till reinforcements arrive. We lack the firepower."
The redhead stood back to her feet, glancing at the people that had started to surround the building at the ground level. It was only a few dozen people but there were already a hundred people living in this apartment complex. it was worrying given the deadly threat that they were facing. It was something that Bobbi had already accounted for though.
The sounds of police sirens foretold their arrival, with an efficiency that surprised many of the onlookers as they set up a perimeter, pushing the crowd back till they were too far to make out the people looking out of the complex's windows.
"They're your backup?" Lois asked, her nose scrunched in a display of annoyance. "Not knocking New York's Finest, but they ain't got the firepower to take out that thing above us."
It was then they both heard it, the whirling sound of a helicopter coming towards them. The two looked to the left, taking enough steps back till there was room for the copter to land down on the roof. Bobbi stalked forward, as the door slid open to the vehicle to reveal a white man in a suit, his hair on the start of a receding style that marked his age as older than the female agent.
"Did you bring what I asked?" Bobbi glanced at him, even as a trio of agents hopped off the copter and ran inside the building with a stretcher between their arms. "Because there'll be some hell to pay if you haven't."
"Ma'am," The unnamed man nodded, his head bowed in respect. "We're just here for Agent Ward and weren't cleared to bring in heavy grade weaponry."
Bobbi couldn't help the groan that came out of her with that statement, it was bad news.
"Then we need to ev-" Before Morse could even finish her order, the gun in her hand was launched into the ground, so hard that it imprinted on the concrete. It was not only her handgun but one of the other agents, even the helicopter started to groan from the stress that was now pressing down on it.
"Get out of there!" Bobbi yelled, even as the pressure started to increase so much that she was brought to her knees. But it was too late, the pilots struggled, they could only slowly move their arms toward their belts when the window exploded into bits onto them.
Blood erupted out of the cockpit as all those left on the roof could do nothing but stare in horror.
(Pat Doyle)
I had a new thought.
Was this what Goofy felt like in those old sketches?
I felt like I should be yelling out that scream of his, the one that goes like Yaaaaaaa-hoo-hoo-hoo-hooey! due to the way I bounced off the device.
These were the kind of thoughts that went through my head as I was implanted into the roof a parked car, smashing through the whole thing and causing the engine to explode into a fiery mess. Something that only seemed to affect the top half of my outfit, burning what remained and revealing both my face and my upper body to any that caught sight of me. That wasn't the worst part though, no if that was the case I could still live with it,
The worst part was the robot was still moving around.
"Great, now I'm reenacting the Incredibles," I muttered standing out of the wreckage of the car and slapping my hand against the flames that were gathered over my form as if they were dust. "Hopefully, this is the first fight against the robot and not the second one that Mr. Incredible had."
And my comparison was accurate enough, it was a big round robot with four tentacles and a single red eye, though in this case, I should've amended that to its late eye. While the other bots that I had faced had a look that I could compare to silver or steel, this one looked to be painted black or at least the outer case of the machine was made from black material.
The screams of the world around me was like something out of Godzilla film, terrified people, babies woman, and one very shrill man off in the distance, add to all that the ones that were still driving in their cars, panicking as they drove backward. All of them were like some of the worst kind of music to my ears.
Dubstep.
Of course, they all had good reason to be screaming like that, the robot was flailing madly, obviously blinded by losing its eye, tentacles, and claws swiping through the air. Cutting through street signs but luckily missing innocent people's heads by mere cms. Then I saw a young man, around my age, in fact, cowering in fear as swipes came ever closer to him. Moving in a flash of speed, I caught the swipe that was actually going to cut through the man's head.
Much to his shock, if the gasp was anything to go by.
"Hey, dude," I spoke up, not really having any real plan to speak but feeling the need to say something to get him unfrozen. "Get moving," I said, grabbing hold of another tentacle as it came down on me. "I only have two arms!"
"R-right, thanks, man," The young man muttered, his steps clattering along the ground as he ran off like a headless chicken.
It was then that I decided to try that trick I had done to the other robots, blowing on the limbs that I had trapped in my hands with my freeze breath. Instantly the metal gained a white sheen, frost forming like someone had hit frost forward on a cold winter night. Then I kicked up, whacking the mechanical limb with enough force that it cracked into two. Letting go of the one that I had kept in my grip, I watched in silence as it fell over, the loss of one of the limbs wasn't something that it had expected and therefore it lost balance within seconds.
This didn't make the robot any less dangerous to anyone that went near it. In fact, it only seemed to increase the frenzy that its remaining limbs jerked around in the air. Dodging each swipe that came my way, I blew once more on the robot, this time focusing on its body. Right into the hole created by the broken eye socket, without any concern for my own safety I shoved my fist and with it, my whole arm into the machine.
It didn't take long for the movement to die out, and so I took a step back, taking in the destruction that had been caused.
"Not too bad," I found myself shrugging. "Honestly, I would've thought that it would be worse."
By the time I realized what I had done, it was already too late. The robot in front of me exploded into a fireball that made the still burning car seem as if it was a match and this was the fireplace. Sadly, this time I was prepared. I could hear myself scream out in pain, blood seeping down my chest as my hand came up to my face, trying to stem the bleeding the only way that I could. My hand drew back as another sharp surge of pain went through my body, I'd been stabbed in the face by a chunk of metal.
Without thinking about it, I pulled out the metal, if it was just a thorn that I had been struck with. The blood that poured out from this was oddly subdued. Something that my limited medical knowledge told me wasn't meant to be the case. Still, the world around me was blurry for a only a few moments, coming back into focus when someone steadied my body by letting me lean on them for support.
"You okay?" The man that I had only just saved asked me, his face red from either fear or exertion. I noticed the blood on him but knew without even asking that it wasn't his. "Do I need to get you to a hospital."
I looked around, spotting the blue hoodie around his waist, while also seeing Doc Ock's device still spinning high above the apartment complex but with added red glow that worried me so much that I wasn't sure how to react to it at the moment.
"Hey," he spoke once more, his free set of fingers snapping in front of me like they were trying to get the attention of a slow dog. "Sta-"
"Don't worry too much," I shook him off, feeling the wound on my forehead close up within seconds. "It'll take a lot more than some steel to take me out," My left hand started to wipe away the still fresh blood that was dripping from my face, letting my would-be savior see the normal forehead that occupied the space. "I've got this all under control."
I took a few steps forward before my sight was nothing but blue, a hoodie had been thrown over my head from behind. I turned around quickly, looking at the shrugging form of the man, he had a sheepish grin.
"Just to keep some dignity," he told me, winking while his eyes roamed around my chest.
Looking down, my entire upper body was exposed, black soot covering large parts of otherwise pale skin and the majority of what was left of my pants. Speaking of which, my pants were less like suit pants, which they had been, and more like a pair of dirty three-quarter lengths. I opened it up, finding the size of it to be rather comical compared to the size of the man that had thrown it. He was only about 5'8 while I was 6'1, meaning that any hoodie of his shouldn't be large enough to be used as a blanket.
"It's my brother's," he explained.
Not interested in finding out more, I leaped forward, flying high above any buildings while tying the hoodie around my neck and letting it flow back as if it was a cape behind my back. I landed on the roof across the street from the apartment complex, finding that my air time had been shorter than I expected.
"Not a big deal," I rubbed my sooty hands together, ridding myself of some of the stuff. "I can get there from here."
And so I jumped… managing to only reach half the distance before I fell to the ground, hitting it like I was an anvil. Asphalt and concrete were thrown up into the air as something became apparent.
"Am I lighter?" I asked, waving my hands around in the air, testing the weight of the limbs as they traveled. "I am-"
"HEY!" Someone yelled, beeping their car horn. "Get out of the way!"
I looked over to find it was a cop, one of many that were huddled around the building. It seems that they had made a perimeter around the place, something that suited me fine.
"Sir!" The policewoman continued to yell at me, somehow unconcerned with either my state of dress or the fact that I had dropped down from the sky. "I need you to step behind the barriers."
"Sorry," I mumbled, walking over to the sidewalk with a little grin on my face, finding that part of my day the oddest somehow, but also the most amusing.
There wasn't much time if any to analyze the situation further, so I jogged in place and then ran at the side of the building as fast as I could. My feet hit the concrete and I made my way up the building with ease, it was like I was running normally on the ground.
But things got more difficult the further up the building that I went, so I went faster, so fast that there were chunks of concrete and glass falling off the building. It didn't take me long before I was within arms reach of the building.
"Up, up," I chanted. "And-"
So knowing what I was about to do, and feeling an increased resistance as I ascended the building, I timed it so my hands would reach out and pull myself up at the same time that I went for a leap.
"-AWAY!"
As if I was from the very comics that inspired this universe, or had been inspired by this universe depending on who you ask, I shot at the Doctor's device like I was a cannonball. Suddenly I felt free, even with the wind biting at my arms and the pressure increasing around my body like weights were dropped on my head. None that mattered, it was like my body had been supercharged, only getting faster as I got closer to the device.
And then I hit it.
Ramming right through the metal as it spun around as if the material was only paper. The resulting explosion felt as if someone was using a hairdryer on me.
Nothing that concerned me.
(Louise)
Louise could do nothing as her body continued to press down onto the roof of the complex, something that intensified with each passing second. The feeling reminded her of gum being slowly stomped by a large boot, just the act of something squishy being flattened. The only thing she could do was roll over to her back, letting her peer up to the sky. Revealing the red light that was being emitted from the center of the science donut.
"Got… any… ideas… agent?" Louise struggled to talk, her chest straining in order to expand, and was moving too fast when it compressed.
"Working… on… it," Came the reply from the older woman, her own body still facing down. From what Louise could see, Morse was actually trying to get to her feet, her arms shaking as she tried to gain some leverage to stand up.
Thankfully for them, while the window of the helicopter had been broken, the vehicle itself was in good enough condition for Bobbi to lean on, letting her slowly stand to her feet. It was a stance without any real strength to it as if a stray breeze would tip her over. Soon Bobbi started to inch her way towards a radio, one of the two that were on the helicopter but also the only one left intact since the front of the vehicle exploded. Sadly for the woman, the floor of the copter was covered in blood, causing her to slip and fall hard.
"Fuck," Bobbi growled as further attempts to raise to her feet were impeded when her limbs started to slip and slide around the floor, making her fall down several more times. It continued until the Agent was out of breath. "God damn it!"
Louise couldn't stand to just stay where she was and do nothing. But since she couldn't get up, as she lacked anything to brace herself on, the young woman managed to roll over till it was possible to imitate the same action that the SHIELD agent had done moments prior. Struggling against the pressure forced down upon her by the experiment going on above them, Louise pressured, she heaved and even stepped on Morse. Much to the Agent's annoyance.
"S-sorry… I am so close," Louise could feel her knees buckling and voice stuttering while her hand barely managed to inch slowly towards the radio… that was when things become light once more.
The roof lit up in the light of a massive explosion, only the smallest of metal chunks raining down onto the area. The two women stuck in the helicopter could feel the pressure lift as if they had lost a massive weight on their shoulder, the helicopter shielding them from the metal rain of death. The two could only glance outside the copter, watching as a shadow fell over them, gaining in size worryingly as the seconds past… that was until a whooshing noise went by, the shadow disappearing in a flash of movement that the two didn't have any words for.
Especially as the sun masked the form of a figure, holding aloft in his mighty hands a large chunk of metal, about the size of a person's head while cloth flowed behind him in the breeze.
"Whoa," Louise couldn't help but gasp as Pat floated down to the roof, gently placing the metal chunk down. She took in the state of his appearance, the torn, burnt clothes, the soot covering his face. "You need a shower."
Pat seemed to ignore this, instead, he posed with his hand on his hips, the movement showing Louise that he had not found a cape but instead the arms of a hoodie that had been wrapped around his neck had melted into his skin.
Another thing that he ignored.
"Hello, ladies," Pat grinned, his white teeth contrasting greatly against the dark soot that otherwise covered his mouth. "I hope that you've had a good day… or at least an exciting one. Mine's been explosive… to say the least."
Louise could feel the stares of the two remaining SHIELD agents, digging into her back as she was the one saying embarrassing things like that. The young woman couldn't help the groan that escaped her mouth and the sight that accompanied him.
"This… is Lugh?" Agent Morse asked, having picked up the name from Louise back when she had called Pat. Something that Louise found to be unfortunate since… why that name? She really didn't want the guy to be known by a god's name.
It couldn't lead to anything good.
"Sadly," Louise confirmed for the Agent.
"Thankfully the good Doctor's device worked based on the manipulation of gravity and magnetic fields," Lugh started to explain as if he had been asked. "So simply piercing those fields with either enough force or enough mass was the only way that I could think to end this experiment."
Louise couldn't help but glance at him, she'd seen some of the scematics that such tech must have been based on, and while she was nowhere near smart enough to claim to understand what the majority of terms used even meant, the redhead was sure that what he described wouldn't have worked with a man of his size, he'd need to be twice the size at least. But she wasn't going to say otherwise while they had governmental viewers.
"Is there anything else that I can do for you lot?" Lugh spoke, his voice coming out as scratchy due to him attempting to mask his natural voice. It was meant to sound deep but he'd failed at that goal. "Because I've gotta bounce, I need -."
"You know that soot isn't a good disguise… right?" The female Agent snarked, her grin and her eyes had knowing shine to it.
Usually, Louise would expect to see some panic form in Pat's eyes, some sign that he was surprised by being asked any questions, frightened that someone would ask him anything not just something to do with his powers or his origins… but anything at all. For such an invincible man… Pat could be frightened by his own shadow.
"Ain't nobody going for a disguise, Agent" he winked, turning his back starting to walk towards the edge of the roof. "I'm openly Lugh. I'll see you around Betty!"
With those words Lugh bent his knee, the air rippling visibly before he launched off into the air. The sight was incredible as if gravity itself had written him a free pass and Pat was just allowed to glide in any direction, the hoodie billowing behind him as if he was wearing a flag. The only thing about this magnificent display that ruined it was a whisper, the one that Louise swore she could hear being carried by the wind.
"No capes?" Pat said, his tone mocking. "Utter hack."
Louise wasn't sure she ever needed to know what he was referring to.
"This epic exit is going to be ruined when he realizes that we know where he lives," Bobbi whispered into Louise's ear. Something that girl had expected since Pat had been at this apartment interviewing people only the other day.
"No idea what you're talking about," Louise shrugged, her hands going into her pocket as started to make her own way towards the roof stairwell. "I'll be going no-"
"Ah!" Agent Morse stood close to Louise, her finger pointing up into the air. "Just one more thing, miss Lois?"
"Yeah?"
"Just removing a letter from your name doesn't make for any better of an alias than soot does a disguise."
(Matt Murdock)
It was only as Matt was finishing tying up Octavius when a whoosh rang out in his ears and suddenly Pat was standing beside him once more, his body reeking of smoke and gasoline as if he'd been set on fire a few times but from the lack of any open wounds… Matt was sure he wasn't injured. Even if the smell of blood told him the man should've been.
"Managed to remove her harness yet?" he asked, nonchalantly pulling fabric from his skin, any wounds sealing up near instantly.
"I don't know how it works," Matt found himself replying, his body still on guard if the woman woke up once more. "Worried it would kill her."
"Yeah, better leaving it for the authorities to remove," Pat walked around the body, his head moving up and down, letting Matt know that he was inspecting Octavius, though in what capacity the masked vigilante wasn't sure.
It could be either in worry for the woman's new injuries or concern that her remaining mechanical limbs snapping back to life.
"It might need surgery from the look it," The soot covered man mumbled, his hand rubbing away the soot stuck to his chin. "The woman drilled it into her spine or at least something like that. Seems that there are a few computer chips, circuit boards, maybe to translate normal neural commands for the cyborg parts."
"You study?"
"No… I'm making shite up as I look at her body," Pat chuckled, his hand slamming against his stomach as he did so. There was a casual vibe to the man's stance, one that hadn't been there the last time the two had met, earlier in the day. "Estimating based on what little science I know. It's not hard when you can see what I can."
"And what can you see?
"Everything."
Confidence seemed to ooze off the man if it wasn't for the display of power and durability that he'd seen, Matt would've claimed that man had a massive ego. But given the circumstances, it was more like Pat's ego was smaller than it could've been. There was a phone on the wall, one that was only brought into focus when the brunt vigilante walked over to it, picking it up with dirty soot-filled hands. Matt would've warned him about fingerprints but he had a feeling that he didn't care too much.
"How about you make your way out of here," The Alien told him. "I've got some calls to make-"
"So you're an alien?" Matt interrupted him, not willing to leave this topic alone for any longer.
"I… am."
"Heard a pause there," The smaller of the two couldn't help but point out. "What's that about?"
"It's complicated," Pat sighed, finally letting his shoulder slump and his voice waver. "Look how about you just meet up with me later, just ask for Pat over in the New York Bulletin's offices. It'll give me some time to think and then I'll let you in on a few of my secrets."
"Only a few?" Matt joked, taken aback by his willingness to be open.
"Hello, police," Pat spoke up, causing Matt to jump up slightly from the sudden shift in tone. The Irish-sounding Alien shifted accents, not majorly, it still sounded Irish but it had shifted pitch and annunciation enough that it was obviously a different accent. "Yeah, I've gotta situation here, this woman attacked me with sum claws, managed to pull me into this kinda lab, a place's a bit messed up and I'm a bit lost, do you think-"
Matt didn't wait around to hear the end of the conversation, instead, he booked it out of the room and back down the sewer, only absentmindedly checking his phone along the way. Revealing a rather embarrassing factoid that he hadn't noticed in all the excitement when the phone yelled out:
"Four… Missed calls… from… Foggy."
He couldn't help the sight that came out of his mouth then.
"Foggy's going to be pissed."
(Pat Doyle)
It was hours later, I'd managed to get away in a burst of super speed just as the police were breaking down the back exit of Octavius's lab, I'd made sure to snap off the remaining two tentacles from her back just in case she woke up and attacked them. Now I was back in the office, after getting a change of clothes and assuring both Ben and Louise that I was more than fine, and that flight was a new superpower that I had gotten only seconds before… and if they were hearing reports about me crashing into the side of buildings then it was all lies.
It was only me here, as far as I was aware at least, something that let me type on my computer as fast as I could, without moving faster than the computer could register that is. Writing a story up that was much closer to a personal essay, revealing some details that I wasn't yet sure I wanted to reveal to the public and in another document writing down the story from the perspective of someone that only knew the story from witness accounts and adding in parts of Octavius's personnel files that had been given to me by an anonymous source.
That was when I heard him come in.
"You need to work on your stealth if you want to sneak up to me," I told him, spinning around on my chair to see the visage of a rather Ultimate Marvel-looking Nick Fury, smirking at me.
"And if I wanted to sneak in here, you'd never known I was there till it was too late," he replied, walking closer to me with his hands nonchalantly being held behind his back, my visionary powers allowing me to see that there was nothing held between them.
"What can I do for you… Mr.?" I asked, playing dumb. I couldn't tell with the single eye he had, whether Fury had just blinked or winked at me but I wasn't going to assume.
"Fury," he revealed, maybe not realizing that I already knew who he was and did for a living. "Director Nick Fury of SHIELD and I would like to have a talk with you… Lugh."
I liked to gamble, mostly because while I knew I was smarter than the average person, I also knew that I wouldn't even break the top hundred smartest people in this world, hell I wouldn't have done so well on my own Earth as well.
Now I didn't gamble with money, I wasn't that dumb.
I gambled with my life.
Which isn't as big of an issue now as it was when I was young.
The second that I'd been caught by the robots, an idea leaped into my head; just let them carry me off to the big bad's base, it's no big deal. These guys are constructed from stainless fucking steel, there's as much a chance that they'll overheat as actually harm me. And my gamble paid off, I was taken to the Ock's lair… I just hadn't expected the man in black from the docks to magically show up as soon as trouble starts. Hadn't expected that I'd need to save his ass either but that was fine.
More hands-on-deck was always welcomed.
"So what-" Before I could finish that sentence, one of the Doc's claws opened up, revealing a dark red glow that soon exploded out towards me like a raging fire out of the back of a rocket heading towards the moon.
So I punched it.
It turned out that the blast had been far more solid than one would've thought, the impact from my fist was enough to fling off into the ceiling, cracking and burning the concrete as if it was plastic. Sadly for me, I'd failed to take into account the electrical wiring that was routed above us, the blast neatly cutting through and causing it to fall into halves around me, sparkling as it had been part of Thor's hammer.
I didn't take heed of it, letting it slap against me back… which…
"FUUUUCK!"
… hurt, causing my body to leap forward while I waved my arms ahead.
"I have you now-" Doc Ock said, her grin wide and her tentacles shooting forward in an attempt to impale me on their claws but it wasn't to be. Instead, they clanged off my body, bending back as my right fist whacked the woman in the chest.
Going back first, the Doctor slammed into a table, breaking it in half and leaving her groaning in pain. The Mechanical limbs on her back were in bits, metal plates sliding along the ground till they reached my feet.
"Sor-" I cut myself off before I could finish the automatic apology. "I mean… oh… yeah!"
"Smooth," The Man in Black spoke, standing up with a hand holding what was no doubt a rather sore back, from having been smashed into a wall by the force of my breath not a minute prior. "She might be a sewer genius but she ain't never accounted for the fumbling of a super-powered alien."
"Hey," Mocking a frown, I placed a hand on my chest, imitating a really insulted baron. "I do not fumble… I stumble. Big difference."
Taking a glance at my fellow vigilante, for as little of that sort of act I've ever done, I decided to take a peek under his mask. My vision cut through the layers of cloth that made his mask, letting me take a peek at the handsome enough man that was beneath. And more importantly, the eyes that were staring blankly at the world in front of him.
Even with my limited knowledge of Marvel Superheroes, which mostly came from the old 90's X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons, I knew that there were very few blind superheroes living around Hell's Kitchen. So that meant this was Matt Murdock, DareDevil.
"Sure there is," He smirked, walking closer to the still groaning Super-Villain and poking at her with his foot. Eventually, as his head pretended to scan up and down the woman's still body, Matt sighed.
"I'm sensing a problem here?" I said, walking towards a desk that hadn't been broken by anyone's body. There was a computer on it you see, a laptop to be more exact, something that I could use to figure out how to stop her plan of sending her neighbor into the voice between universes. "Fuck."
"Yeah, I'm not good with computers either, " Matt spoke, seemingly having predicted this problem before it even came to my mind to look at the computer. The thing was password-protected, and I doubt either me or the blind man could break the security that Octavius would use. "There's only one thing we can do."
There was a low hiss to his voice at that last sentence, causing me to turn back to face him limping close to the woman. Not liking the implications alone, I stalked forward and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"What's your plan?"
He turned his head, not like a normal person would to see a person as they were talking to them but instead Matt was leaning forward so his ears were facing me in just the right way that I was between the two of them.
I wonder if he was having issues reading my heartbeat? Was my body too dense? Did the beat sound different from other people's? I could hear others and my own too, but I usually drowned it out due to how distracting hearing my own heartbeat was. I didn't analyze it.
"There's only one person here that knows that password for that computer," he said eventually, one of his hands coming up to point at the device, almost lazily. "Her," With a rapid turn, his other arm pointed to the downed Octopus. "And from what I heard, if we don't figure out how to stop her experiment a lot of people will die."
"Right and that's fair and all," I shrugged, walking around him till I was standing between Matt and Octavius. "But that doesn't answer my question, what are you going to do?"
"I think you know," Matt replied, his voice low, his tone hard.
I sighed, closing my eyes and rubbing the bridge of my nose rapidly for a few moments of time that lasted longer for me than it would for anyone else in the world. This was a tough spot… but even then, even with what was at stake here.
Couldn't condone it.
"Torture isn't reliable enough nor do even have the time to break someone," I placed my hand into my pants' pocket, rooting around in there for a second to pull out my phone. The other vigilante took this time to walk around me, an action that I preempted by walking in step with him, keeping him on my right side, while Octavius was on my left.
"We don't have time for anything else unless you've got a computer genius on speed dial? I don't see how we stop this from happening," It was said sarcastically, and while I didn't have a number for such a man, Louise did.
"I've got ya there," I said, holding up the phone, pretending that I didn't know that Matt was blind and therefore wouldn't be able to tell what was in front of him. "Calling her now."
The phone rang, the tone filling my ear as I waited for Louise to pick.
"Hey, L," I spoke quickly, not letting her get the first response. "Someone can overhear, Codenames only."
There was a large intake of breath, audible to anyone at either side of the call.
"I'm not calling you, Lugh."
"Yes," I grinned. "Yes, you are."
"Why am I, L, but you get to be named after a god?" Louise asked me, her tone annoyed.
"Because you're smarter than me?" I replied, trying for the buttering her up approach in getting her to call me Lugh.
"Anyway, I need a hand," she started, seeming to drop the subject,
"Well… so do I?" There was a rather annoyed sounding sigh that came from her lips Then a few seconds passed before Louise continued.
"Is it life or death?" She asked, causing me to glance over to the screen in front of me, sweat actually forming on my brow from the anxiety this was causing me.
"Yup."
"So is mine."
That was bad news.
(Lois otherwise known as Louise)
She finished explaining and finished listening to the life and death situations that the two had found themselves in. The only good thing that Louise was sure that came from this was how they were dealing with the same problem, just at different ends.
Sadly, Pat was on the wrong side of this problem.
Nothing he could smash his way out of where he was.
"Right, get here," Louise said, having ignored the pit that she could feel gathering in her stomach. Her hand unconsciously rubbed the area as if trying to push the feeling down deeper into her body. "I'm pretty sure that you could just smash the devices."
"I don't know," She could hear how Pat was scratching at his neck as he was deciding between two options that were just as bad as each other. "I… think it would be a good idea if I didn't destroy the tech that is possibly… radioactive?"
Louise didn't even miss a beat at this news, turning to the agents that were huddled by the windows. The man, Grant, was still pointing his gun at the younger woman, something that annoyed both Louise and his partner Bobbi Morse.
"Hey, you guys' got anything like a Geiger Counter?"
The two agents briefly glanced at each other, Grant appears to be the most confused by the question while Bobbi simply reached into her back pocket and threw out a yellow gameboy-looking device.
"Why do you have that?" Grant asked, clicking his tongue and shutting his eyes together from confusion.
"We're monitoring a scientist with access to dangerous materials," Bobbi responded, her tone indicating a level of heat that Louise took time to note down, not wanting to take any action that would escalate this sort of mood. At least not in this situation. "I've got a lot more than a Geiger counter on me."
Its screen lit up in a dim blue glow that barely managed to create a viewable image. The numbers were zero, as Louise had expected, it would make sense that someone trying to hide the beginning stages of their work like Octavius was, would keep away from any power source that could be easily detectable.
"Nope." Louise then spoke back into the phone. "Seems that yo-"
It was at that moment that the room shook once more, the sounds of screaming started to emit from the streets below them. The cause of this outbreak from the people outside was shown to the occupants of the apartment when two large claws struck the sides of the nearest window, digging into the frame and throwing it out to the street below.
Without any hesitance, Louise was thrown to the floor by Grant, while Bobbi opened fire with her nine-millimeter pistol at the joints of the robot that was rapidly ascending up the side of the building. As it passed the red glowing eye peered inside, showcasing its massive size, almost the same you'd expect out of a mini-van or a larger car. This was something that the two agents noticed and diverted their fire towards but like before the rounds bounced off harmlessly.
Harmlessly to the robot, but for Grant, not so much. Gunfire ricocheted back at the SHIELD Agent, hitting him in the thigh and causing him to fall to the floor in pain.
"Fuck," The man growled, looking angry at himself for even trying to damage the machine with such small caliber weapons. "Fucking hell, need a medic."
Bobbi stopped her own assault, rolling to the ground and pulling off her jacket, she wrapped the cloth around the wound, putting pressure on it. Then she looked back towards the robot, who by now had resumed its trek up the building, and pressed against a spot on her jumper.
"This is Agent Morse, I need a bus," The older woman spoke into her jumper, using the term that many police officers are taught to use when referring to an ambulance. Calling it a bus was just faster. "I repeat, I need a bus, Agent is down, requesting a bus and heavy grade reinforcements."
Louise couldn't hear the response that was no doubt on the other end of that call, but she was almost sure that heavy grade reinforcements would be a welcome treat. But rather than flying the US colors, she'd prefer if her backup was… bluer.
"Lugh," Louise found herself growling at going along with such a name but knew that it wasn't the time that argument. "You gotta get here, we're being attacked by a robot with tentacles and claws."
(Pat Doyle)
"You know… I think she's in trouble," I spoke, acting dumb since the phone has finally ended. The act was for the Doctor, I could tell that she was now awake, something that the woman was attempting to hide by leaving her eyes shut, I wanted her to think that I was dumb.
At least when it comes to non-science matters, since that ship sailed back when I had first met her.
"You don't say," Matt smiled awkwardly, seemly not sure how to take such a statement. He shifted his stance, leaning on his right foot solely, in his hand now was a steel pipe, something that, due to my focus on the phone call, I hadn't noticed him picking up. "Sounds like you should hurry over there, I'll deal with things on this end."
I knew what that meant and that style of 24 operations didn't sit well for me. So I leaned in, coming close to his ear, trying to think of some line that would convince him not to do what i could he wanted.
"Matt… I wouldn't do anything that would end up pointless."
It was his eyes, though they were blank they didn't lack expression, turns out that even becoming blind didn't train out the way people are expressive when caught by surprise.
Before doing anything, like leaving what amounted to a normal human with one of the smartest people in the world, I scanned the room with my collection of visionary powers, checking for traps, though finding none, and eventually finding a taser hidden in a nearby drawer. I moved fast, pulling the thing open, grabbing the taser, and bluing back before anyone could even figure out that I moved.
"This," I said, handing him the taser. "Is what I want you to use to take her out if it looks to get up. I don't want to come back and see blood splattered back over this place… from either of you."
With that warning given, I ran off in a burst of super speed that at this point in time I doubt that anyone could match. Knowing that I had wasted some time trying to intimidate the soon-to-be Daredevil, I pushed myself forward, pushed myself to move faster than I'd ever had before. Moving at such high speeds that I was surprised that there wasn't some sort of sonic boom while also committing to turns in the roads that even the best drivers wouldn't attempt at such speeds.
The world around me was a blur of colors, though not as much as I thought it should be, just the same amount that I'd expect from someone that turned around too fast. When I finally made it to the front of the apartment, I was breathing heavily, the strain that I placed on my stamina only just hit me as I stopped. But I wasn't so much exhausted as I was out of breath, having not used proper breathing as I had been reading.
I looked up, which only meant that I was hit in the face by a rather powerful beam. The force took me off guard, shoving me to the ground with a crash while the searing heat of the beam started to eat through the cloth mask with minor resistance, leaving me with half a mask covering my face.
By the time that the attack faded and I stood back up, I could feel the left side of my face burning, while the city air hit against the hot skin that was now revealed to the world.
"Shit," I swore, my hands clenching as I glared up at the biggest robots that I faced this evening, standing tall on the roof of the building. It was at least big enough to fit three people inside it, so it was little wonder that its weapons packed a bigger punch than those of its smaller brethren.
This time I was watching as the beam started to charge up, managing to move out of the way and letting the red splash against the concrete, smashing it up but not doing much else. I bent my knees, but before I could even attempt the leap at the mechanic menace, an explosion from the other side of the thing caused it to shift forward from the pressure of the impact.
There was no waiting for me though, I leaped up into the sky, my powerful legs propelling me higher than should've ever been possible, letting me reach the robot within a single second.
It was also then that I realized that it wasn't just the robot's large size that set it apart from the others that I've faced, it was also the materials it was built with. Where those earlier ones were made from stainless steel, a decision that even now confuses me, this was made from tougher metal, stuff that I'd never personally seen since getting my powers. But that wasn't important in this case, my fist impaled it all the same. I could feel the wires contained within sizzle and spark against the skin of my knuckles even as I continued to rise higher into the sky, the robot now being carried with me.
I could hear a woman yell from below me something along the lines of "Jesus Christ!" as I started to near a spinning metal donut a couple of dozen meters above the apartment building.
It was then that something odd happened.
The robot and I… bounced off nothing, several meters away from the device and being flung off into the city below.
"Oh, fucking come on!"
(Matt Murdock)
It wasn't like Matt wanted to commit such an act, in fact, it would weigh heavy on his conscience, it would even leave a dark stain on his soul. But that didn't mean he wouldn't. It just meant that he understood that for many what he was about to do was wrong.
"You can stop pretending," he warned the woman, snapping his foot against her chin and sending Octavius tumbling to the side and off the broken pieces of the desk. "You're not fooling anyone."
The Doctor giggled, delighted about something that the vigilante could only guess at as she rolled onto her back once more, her bloody grin facing the sky, at least according to the blind man's sense of smell.
"Oh!" she said, continuing to giggle along the way. "Not five minutes without your blue comrade and you already start the torture. How dangerous."
Showcasing how much self-control Matt had, he didn't let how much inner turmoil he had with this action show on what little of his face that someone could see. Instead, he just set his mouth in a frown and pressed the activation button on the taser, causing it to spark.
"Well, a taser that's going to get me talki-" Before the Doctor could finish her gloat, Matt stabbed the taser into her chest, the woman convulsed on the floor, her head hitting hard against the concrete and causing a wet thwack.
Matt waited for Octavius to stop groaning in pain before he spoke once more.
"Willing to talk now?" he asked, his voice coming out as a low growl as he leaned in closer to the Doctor, his masked face nearly pressing against her goggled visage.
"Did you know… the letter J is the only letter that doesn't appear on the periodic table?"
Before the masked vigilante could even respond to the rather random fact thrown way a tentacle shot out of the Doctor's back. Matt barely managed to roll out away from it, the sparking mechanical limbs scraping across the floor as the claws sliced through the outermost edge of the man's skin near his shin.
Red splashed against the floor, pouring out of the flesh wound as the man was a wrestling blading.
"I'm sorry… did you think that I'd just sit down and take it while you tortured me?" Octavius questioned, her form rising as the lower two tentacles lifted her up, a third one shutting out in front of her body while the fourth only twitched, hanging loosely from her back.
Broken and sparking.
Matt took a second bend his leg experimentally, ignoring the sting of the wound and testing to see if there was any give to it. There wasn't.
"Thought you might," he replied, hopping from one foot to another while grinning. The taser sparked to life as Matt's senses took in the whirling of servos that operated the limbs, the blind man could even make out the noise as one of them spluttered and nearly petered out. "If your taste in outfits is any indication."
Of course, the man couldn't even tell the color of her clothes, being blind and all.
"Says one color Charlie," The Doctor mocked, a snap of one of the claws singling that she'd grabbed something behind her. Some sort of remote control if Matt was able to perceive the object right. "How about we shift away from fashion… and onto the final countdown!"
With a press of a button, the displays around the room flashed till they were showing the numbers counting down… 10:00… 09:59 and so on and so forth… something that Matt wasn't able to see… given that he was blind, but Octavius didn't know this.
"You have ten minutes to try and get the password off me," There was a clatter of metal in the air, allowing Matt to move out of the way in time to avoid the grasp of the Doctor, rolling under their reach while also advancing forward.
Matt avoided the loose wires that were still sparking with power as he jabbed the taser in between the metal plates that composed the tentacle nearby. He could feel the heat explode off the mechanical limb as it spluttered to the floor. But sadly for the vigilante, his taser exploded in his hand, it was only luck that let him fling the device away with only minor injury to the hand holding it.
Octavius simply raised a brow, her smile deadly even as she had lost another tentacle.
"A somewhat equal exchange," She let her two remaining tentacles shift her down to the ground, letting them hang freely in the air. "But I think you'll find that I have more limbs to lose than you do!"
With a crackling laugh, Octavius' tentacle shot out claws at the man. This time though, Matt's foot kicked up a plank of wood shielding him from the danger and allowing him to use his injured foot to smack the attack back at the woman.
But a tentacle snapped at it, having somehow gained a new set of claws within the seconds this all took place. Then the Doctor sent the remaining tentacle in a swipe that nearly took out Matt's legs, only for him to leap over it before using his good hand to throw the sparkling cable he'd picked up at some stage at the woman.
Octavius didn't even have time to scream as the cable made contact with her forehead, the electrical energy surging into her with such force that her skin burned. Unlike when such a cable had stuck someone earlier that evening, this event lasted longer and also had a greater effect on the target.
The Doctor slumped to the floor, limp as a doll.
"Well, that didn't go as planned."
(Bobbi Morse)
"Well, that wasn't a total bust," Bobbi spoke, her eyes watching as the blue blur and the large robot fly into the distance cityscape. She threw down her compact missile launcher. "Got rid of that mechanical menace at least," there was a rush of movement from the roof exit, causing her to turn her head to face the incoming young Lois.
"Seems your backup went double KO with that robot," Bobbi motioned towards where the duo had flown off to. "Good for us," The older woman continued, her eyes now focused on the objective ahead. "It means that efforts can be focused on the real threat."
"Not at all concerned that there was a man that can leap tall buildings and punch robots hard enough for it to go two or three miles?" The younger asked, a brow raised. Bobbi thought that the girl had potential, she might even make a good agent with how cool she was under pressure.
"More concerned by the possible forming vortex of death above us right now."
"Fair."
The two women glared at the device with glares that would cause seasoned marines to wet themselves. They needed to stop it now before it was too late and it fully activated. They glanced around them, looking for something that could be used, but found none.
"Where's your backup?" The younger of the two asked, her eyes peering over the side of the roof with a questioning glance.
Bobbi couldn't help the scoff that erupted from her, though glad that she no longer needed to mask her reactions to keep up the appearance of a meek housewife. Even in such a tense and dangerous situation, this was a breath of fresh air for the agent of SHIELD.
"Not everyone's got someone who makes sports cars look slow," she eventually replied, her hand coming down to the ground, examining some scorch marks that Bobbi could deduce the origin of. "Look at this."
At the rather stern tone, the order had been given, the young Lois bent down to see the marks herself. She hummed thoughtfully, her eyes glancing back up to the spinning donut above her. It was familiar to the young girl, something that she recognized but her mind couldn't grasp just where she'd seen this before.
"Looks like a burn mark," Lois remarked, her eyes inspecting the circle pattern that made its form. "And from the looks of things, whatever caused it went straight up-" Suddenly, she stopped herself as if her mind realized something that didn't make sense. "It could be the donuts-"
"Donuts?" Bobbi stopped, blinking at the, to her, random phrase.
"The thing in the sky," The redhead groaned, sounding annoyed by even being asked that. "Anyway, I was saying it could be the donuts but that wouldn't work with how fresh the marks are, see we saw those things fly out the window. So these marks wouldn't be here if it was them… also looking at them. It seems that there's no visible sign of propulsion."
Bobbi was impressed, if not with the girl's vocabulary, at least with her deduction ability.
"Means we should keep an eye out," The SHIELD Agent informed her, bringing back out her pistol and checking the chamber. "We won't be able to do anything about the device till reinforcements arrive. We lack the firepower."
The redhead stood back to her feet, glancing at the people that had started to surround the building at the ground level. It was only a few dozen people but there were already a hundred people living in this apartment complex. it was worrying given the deadly threat that they were facing. It was something that Bobbi had already accounted for though.
The sounds of police sirens foretold their arrival, with an efficiency that surprised many of the onlookers as they set up a perimeter, pushing the crowd back till they were too far to make out the people looking out of the complex's windows.
"They're your backup?" Lois asked, her nose scrunched in a display of annoyance. "Not knocking New York's Finest, but they ain't got the firepower to take out that thing above us."
It was then they both heard it, the whirling sound of a helicopter coming towards them. The two looked to the left, taking enough steps back till there was room for the copter to land down on the roof. Bobbi stalked forward, as the door slid open to the vehicle to reveal a white man in a suit, his hair on the start of a receding style that marked his age as older than the female agent.
"Did you bring what I asked?" Bobbi glanced at him, even as a trio of agents hopped off the copter and ran inside the building with a stretcher between their arms. "Because there'll be some hell to pay if you haven't."
"Ma'am," The unnamed man nodded, his head bowed in respect. "We're just here for Agent Ward and weren't cleared to bring in heavy grade weaponry."
Bobbi couldn't help the groan that came out of her with that statement, it was bad news.
"Then we need to ev-" Before Morse could even finish her order, the gun in her hand was launched into the ground, so hard that it imprinted on the concrete. It was not only her handgun but one of the other agents, even the helicopter started to groan from the stress that was now pressing down on it.
"Get out of there!" Bobbi yelled, even as the pressure started to increase so much that she was brought to her knees. But it was too late, the pilots struggled, they could only slowly move their arms toward their belts when the window exploded into bits onto them.
Blood erupted out of the cockpit as all those left on the roof could do nothing but stare in horror.
(Pat Doyle)
I had a new thought.
Was this what Goofy felt like in those old sketches?
I felt like I should be yelling out that scream of his, the one that goes like Yaaaaaaa-hoo-hoo-hoo-hooey! due to the way I bounced off the device.
These were the kind of thoughts that went through my head as I was implanted into the roof a parked car, smashing through the whole thing and causing the engine to explode into a fiery mess. Something that only seemed to affect the top half of my outfit, burning what remained and revealing both my face and my upper body to any that caught sight of me. That wasn't the worst part though, no if that was the case I could still live with it,
The worst part was the robot was still moving around.
"Great, now I'm reenacting the Incredibles," I muttered standing out of the wreckage of the car and slapping my hand against the flames that were gathered over my form as if they were dust. "Hopefully, this is the first fight against the robot and not the second one that Mr. Incredible had."
And my comparison was accurate enough, it was a big round robot with four tentacles and a single red eye, though in this case, I should've amended that to its late eye. While the other bots that I had faced had a look that I could compare to silver or steel, this one looked to be painted black or at least the outer case of the machine was made from black material.
The screams of the world around me was like something out of Godzilla film, terrified people, babies woman, and one very shrill man off in the distance, add to all that the ones that were still driving in their cars, panicking as they drove backward. All of them were like some of the worst kind of music to my ears.
Dubstep.
Of course, they all had good reason to be screaming like that, the robot was flailing madly, obviously blinded by losing its eye, tentacles, and claws swiping through the air. Cutting through street signs but luckily missing innocent people's heads by mere cms. Then I saw a young man, around my age, in fact, cowering in fear as swipes came ever closer to him. Moving in a flash of speed, I caught the swipe that was actually going to cut through the man's head.
Much to his shock, if the gasp was anything to go by.
"Hey, dude," I spoke up, not really having any real plan to speak but feeling the need to say something to get him unfrozen. "Get moving," I said, grabbing hold of another tentacle as it came down on me. "I only have two arms!"
"R-right, thanks, man," The young man muttered, his steps clattering along the ground as he ran off like a headless chicken.
It was then that I decided to try that trick I had done to the other robots, blowing on the limbs that I had trapped in my hands with my freeze breath. Instantly the metal gained a white sheen, frost forming like someone had hit frost forward on a cold winter night. Then I kicked up, whacking the mechanical limb with enough force that it cracked into two. Letting go of the one that I had kept in my grip, I watched in silence as it fell over, the loss of one of the limbs wasn't something that it had expected and therefore it lost balance within seconds.
This didn't make the robot any less dangerous to anyone that went near it. In fact, it only seemed to increase the frenzy that its remaining limbs jerked around in the air. Dodging each swipe that came my way, I blew once more on the robot, this time focusing on its body. Right into the hole created by the broken eye socket, without any concern for my own safety I shoved my fist and with it, my whole arm into the machine.
It didn't take long for the movement to die out, and so I took a step back, taking in the destruction that had been caused.
"Not too bad," I found myself shrugging. "Honestly, I would've thought that it would be worse."
By the time I realized what I had done, it was already too late. The robot in front of me exploded into a fireball that made the still burning car seem as if it was a match and this was the fireplace. Sadly, this time I was prepared. I could hear myself scream out in pain, blood seeping down my chest as my hand came up to my face, trying to stem the bleeding the only way that I could. My hand drew back as another sharp surge of pain went through my body, I'd been stabbed in the face by a chunk of metal.
Without thinking about it, I pulled out the metal, if it was just a thorn that I had been struck with. The blood that poured out from this was oddly subdued. Something that my limited medical knowledge told me wasn't meant to be the case. Still, the world around me was blurry for a only a few moments, coming back into focus when someone steadied my body by letting me lean on them for support.
"You okay?" The man that I had only just saved asked me, his face red from either fear or exertion. I noticed the blood on him but knew without even asking that it wasn't his. "Do I need to get you to a hospital."
I looked around, spotting the blue hoodie around his waist, while also seeing Doc Ock's device still spinning high above the apartment complex but with added red glow that worried me so much that I wasn't sure how to react to it at the moment.
"Hey," he spoke once more, his free set of fingers snapping in front of me like they were trying to get the attention of a slow dog. "Sta-"
"Don't worry too much," I shook him off, feeling the wound on my forehead close up within seconds. "It'll take a lot more than some steel to take me out," My left hand started to wipe away the still fresh blood that was dripping from my face, letting my would-be savior see the normal forehead that occupied the space. "I've got this all under control."
I took a few steps forward before my sight was nothing but blue, a hoodie had been thrown over my head from behind. I turned around quickly, looking at the shrugging form of the man, he had a sheepish grin.
"Just to keep some dignity," he told me, winking while his eyes roamed around my chest.
Looking down, my entire upper body was exposed, black soot covering large parts of otherwise pale skin and the majority of what was left of my pants. Speaking of which, my pants were less like suit pants, which they had been, and more like a pair of dirty three-quarter lengths. I opened it up, finding the size of it to be rather comical compared to the size of the man that had thrown it. He was only about 5'8 while I was 6'1, meaning that any hoodie of his shouldn't be large enough to be used as a blanket.
"It's my brother's," he explained.
Not interested in finding out more, I leaped forward, flying high above any buildings while tying the hoodie around my neck and letting it flow back as if it was a cape behind my back. I landed on the roof across the street from the apartment complex, finding that my air time had been shorter than I expected.
"Not a big deal," I rubbed my sooty hands together, ridding myself of some of the stuff. "I can get there from here."
And so I jumped… managing to only reach half the distance before I fell to the ground, hitting it like I was an anvil. Asphalt and concrete were thrown up into the air as something became apparent.
"Am I lighter?" I asked, waving my hands around in the air, testing the weight of the limbs as they traveled. "I am-"
"HEY!" Someone yelled, beeping their car horn. "Get out of the way!"
I looked over to find it was a cop, one of many that were huddled around the building. It seems that they had made a perimeter around the place, something that suited me fine.
"Sir!" The policewoman continued to yell at me, somehow unconcerned with either my state of dress or the fact that I had dropped down from the sky. "I need you to step behind the barriers."
"Sorry," I mumbled, walking over to the sidewalk with a little grin on my face, finding that part of my day the oddest somehow, but also the most amusing.
There wasn't much time if any to analyze the situation further, so I jogged in place and then ran at the side of the building as fast as I could. My feet hit the concrete and I made my way up the building with ease, it was like I was running normally on the ground.
But things got more difficult the further up the building that I went, so I went faster, so fast that there were chunks of concrete and glass falling off the building. It didn't take me long before I was within arms reach of the building.
"Up, up," I chanted. "And-"
So knowing what I was about to do, and feeling an increased resistance as I ascended the building, I timed it so my hands would reach out and pull myself up at the same time that I went for a leap.
"-AWAY!"
As if I was from the very comics that inspired this universe, or had been inspired by this universe depending on who you ask, I shot at the Doctor's device like I was a cannonball. Suddenly I felt free, even with the wind biting at my arms and the pressure increasing around my body like weights were dropped on my head. None that mattered, it was like my body had been supercharged, only getting faster as I got closer to the device.
And then I hit it.
Ramming right through the metal as it spun around as if the material was only paper. The resulting explosion felt as if someone was using a hairdryer on me.
Nothing that concerned me.
(Louise)
Louise could do nothing as her body continued to press down onto the roof of the complex, something that intensified with each passing second. The feeling reminded her of gum being slowly stomped by a large boot, just the act of something squishy being flattened. The only thing she could do was roll over to her back, letting her peer up to the sky. Revealing the red light that was being emitted from the center of the science donut.
"Got… any… ideas… agent?" Louise struggled to talk, her chest straining in order to expand, and was moving too fast when it compressed.
"Working… on… it," Came the reply from the older woman, her own body still facing down. From what Louise could see, Morse was actually trying to get to her feet, her arms shaking as she tried to gain some leverage to stand up.
Thankfully for them, while the window of the helicopter had been broken, the vehicle itself was in good enough condition for Bobbi to lean on, letting her slowly stand to her feet. It was a stance without any real strength to it as if a stray breeze would tip her over. Soon Bobbi started to inch her way towards a radio, one of the two that were on the helicopter but also the only one left intact since the front of the vehicle exploded. Sadly for the woman, the floor of the copter was covered in blood, causing her to slip and fall hard.
"Fuck," Bobbi growled as further attempts to raise to her feet were impeded when her limbs started to slip and slide around the floor, making her fall down several more times. It continued until the Agent was out of breath. "God damn it!"
Louise couldn't stand to just stay where she was and do nothing. But since she couldn't get up, as she lacked anything to brace herself on, the young woman managed to roll over till it was possible to imitate the same action that the SHIELD agent had done moments prior. Struggling against the pressure forced down upon her by the experiment going on above them, Louise pressured, she heaved and even stepped on Morse. Much to the Agent's annoyance.
"S-sorry… I am so close," Louise could feel her knees buckling and voice stuttering while her hand barely managed to inch slowly towards the radio… that was when things become light once more.
The roof lit up in the light of a massive explosion, only the smallest of metal chunks raining down onto the area. The two women stuck in the helicopter could feel the pressure lift as if they had lost a massive weight on their shoulder, the helicopter shielding them from the metal rain of death. The two could only glance outside the copter, watching as a shadow fell over them, gaining in size worryingly as the seconds past… that was until a whooshing noise went by, the shadow disappearing in a flash of movement that the two didn't have any words for.
Especially as the sun masked the form of a figure, holding aloft in his mighty hands a large chunk of metal, about the size of a person's head while cloth flowed behind him in the breeze.
"Whoa," Louise couldn't help but gasp as Pat floated down to the roof, gently placing the metal chunk down. She took in the state of his appearance, the torn, burnt clothes, the soot covering his face. "You need a shower."
Pat seemed to ignore this, instead, he posed with his hand on his hips, the movement showing Louise that he had not found a cape but instead the arms of a hoodie that had been wrapped around his neck had melted into his skin.
Another thing that he ignored.
"Hello, ladies," Pat grinned, his white teeth contrasting greatly against the dark soot that otherwise covered his mouth. "I hope that you've had a good day… or at least an exciting one. Mine's been explosive… to say the least."
Louise could feel the stares of the two remaining SHIELD agents, digging into her back as she was the one saying embarrassing things like that. The young woman couldn't help the groan that escaped her mouth and the sight that accompanied him.
"This… is Lugh?" Agent Morse asked, having picked up the name from Louise back when she had called Pat. Something that Louise found to be unfortunate since… why that name? She really didn't want the guy to be known by a god's name.
It couldn't lead to anything good.
"Sadly," Louise confirmed for the Agent.
"Thankfully the good Doctor's device worked based on the manipulation of gravity and magnetic fields," Lugh started to explain as if he had been asked. "So simply piercing those fields with either enough force or enough mass was the only way that I could think to end this experiment."
Louise couldn't help but glance at him, she'd seen some of the scematics that such tech must have been based on, and while she was nowhere near smart enough to claim to understand what the majority of terms used even meant, the redhead was sure that what he described wouldn't have worked with a man of his size, he'd need to be twice the size at least. But she wasn't going to say otherwise while they had governmental viewers.
"Is there anything else that I can do for you lot?" Lugh spoke, his voice coming out as scratchy due to him attempting to mask his natural voice. It was meant to sound deep but he'd failed at that goal. "Because I've gotta bounce, I need -."
"You know that soot isn't a good disguise… right?" The female Agent snarked, her grin and her eyes had knowing shine to it.
Usually, Louise would expect to see some panic form in Pat's eyes, some sign that he was surprised by being asked any questions, frightened that someone would ask him anything not just something to do with his powers or his origins… but anything at all. For such an invincible man… Pat could be frightened by his own shadow.
"Ain't nobody going for a disguise, Agent" he winked, turning his back starting to walk towards the edge of the roof. "I'm openly Lugh. I'll see you around Betty!"
With those words Lugh bent his knee, the air rippling visibly before he launched off into the air. The sight was incredible as if gravity itself had written him a free pass and Pat was just allowed to glide in any direction, the hoodie billowing behind him as if he was wearing a flag. The only thing about this magnificent display that ruined it was a whisper, the one that Louise swore she could hear being carried by the wind.
"No capes?" Pat said, his tone mocking. "Utter hack."
Louise wasn't sure she ever needed to know what he was referring to.
"This epic exit is going to be ruined when he realizes that we know where he lives," Bobbi whispered into Louise's ear. Something that girl had expected since Pat had been at this apartment interviewing people only the other day.
"No idea what you're talking about," Louise shrugged, her hands going into her pocket as started to make her own way towards the roof stairwell. "I'll be going no-"
"Ah!" Agent Morse stood close to Louise, her finger pointing up into the air. "Just one more thing, miss Lois?"
"Yeah?"
"Just removing a letter from your name doesn't make for any better of an alias than soot does a disguise."
(Matt Murdock)
It was only as Matt was finishing tying up Octavius when a whoosh rang out in his ears and suddenly Pat was standing beside him once more, his body reeking of smoke and gasoline as if he'd been set on fire a few times but from the lack of any open wounds… Matt was sure he wasn't injured. Even if the smell of blood told him the man should've been.
"Managed to remove her harness yet?" he asked, nonchalantly pulling fabric from his skin, any wounds sealing up near instantly.
"I don't know how it works," Matt found himself replying, his body still on guard if the woman woke up once more. "Worried it would kill her."
"Yeah, better leaving it for the authorities to remove," Pat walked around the body, his head moving up and down, letting Matt know that he was inspecting Octavius, though in what capacity the masked vigilante wasn't sure.
It could be either in worry for the woman's new injuries or concern that her remaining mechanical limbs snapping back to life.
"It might need surgery from the look it," The soot covered man mumbled, his hand rubbing away the soot stuck to his chin. "The woman drilled it into her spine or at least something like that. Seems that there are a few computer chips, circuit boards, maybe to translate normal neural commands for the cyborg parts."
"You study?"
"No… I'm making shite up as I look at her body," Pat chuckled, his hand slamming against his stomach as he did so. There was a casual vibe to the man's stance, one that hadn't been there the last time the two had met, earlier in the day. "Estimating based on what little science I know. It's not hard when you can see what I can."
"And what can you see?
"Everything."
Confidence seemed to ooze off the man if it wasn't for the display of power and durability that he'd seen, Matt would've claimed that man had a massive ego. But given the circumstances, it was more like Pat's ego was smaller than it could've been. There was a phone on the wall, one that was only brought into focus when the brunt vigilante walked over to it, picking it up with dirty soot-filled hands. Matt would've warned him about fingerprints but he had a feeling that he didn't care too much.
"How about you make your way out of here," The Alien told him. "I've got some calls to make-"
"So you're an alien?" Matt interrupted him, not willing to leave this topic alone for any longer.
"I… am."
"Heard a pause there," The smaller of the two couldn't help but point out. "What's that about?"
"It's complicated," Pat sighed, finally letting his shoulder slump and his voice waver. "Look how about you just meet up with me later, just ask for Pat over in the New York Bulletin's offices. It'll give me some time to think and then I'll let you in on a few of my secrets."
"Only a few?" Matt joked, taken aback by his willingness to be open.
"Hello, police," Pat spoke up, causing Matt to jump up slightly from the sudden shift in tone. The Irish-sounding Alien shifted accents, not majorly, it still sounded Irish but it had shifted pitch and annunciation enough that it was obviously a different accent. "Yeah, I've gotta situation here, this woman attacked me with sum claws, managed to pull me into this kinda lab, a place's a bit messed up and I'm a bit lost, do you think-"
Matt didn't wait around to hear the end of the conversation, instead, he booked it out of the room and back down the sewer, only absentmindedly checking his phone along the way. Revealing a rather embarrassing factoid that he hadn't noticed in all the excitement when the phone yelled out:
"Four… Missed calls… from… Foggy."
He couldn't help the sight that came out of his mouth then.
"Foggy's going to be pissed."
(Pat Doyle)
It was hours later, I'd managed to get away in a burst of super speed just as the police were breaking down the back exit of Octavius's lab, I'd made sure to snap off the remaining two tentacles from her back just in case she woke up and attacked them. Now I was back in the office, after getting a change of clothes and assuring both Ben and Louise that I was more than fine, and that flight was a new superpower that I had gotten only seconds before… and if they were hearing reports about me crashing into the side of buildings then it was all lies.
It was only me here, as far as I was aware at least, something that let me type on my computer as fast as I could, without moving faster than the computer could register that is. Writing a story up that was much closer to a personal essay, revealing some details that I wasn't yet sure I wanted to reveal to the public and in another document writing down the story from the perspective of someone that only knew the story from witness accounts and adding in parts of Octavius's personnel files that had been given to me by an anonymous source.
That was when I heard him come in.
"You need to work on your stealth if you want to sneak up to me," I told him, spinning around on my chair to see the visage of a rather Ultimate Marvel-looking Nick Fury, smirking at me.
"And if I wanted to sneak in here, you'd never known I was there till it was too late," he replied, walking closer to me with his hands nonchalantly being held behind his back, my visionary powers allowing me to see that there was nothing held between them.
"What can I do for you… Mr.?" I asked, playing dumb. I couldn't tell with the single eye he had, whether Fury had just blinked or winked at me but I wasn't going to assume.
"Fury," he revealed, maybe not realizing that I already knew who he was and did for a living. "Director Nick Fury of SHIELD and I would like to have a talk with you… Lugh."
- Location
- Uk
I would be fascinated to see ikaris's (eternals) reaction to Lugh's actions and abilities. Especially when he starts displaying laser vision.
Edit:It might even set ikaris off early just from sheer egotism that this lesser being shares his exact abilities and possibly outclasses him.
Edit:It might even set ikaris off early just from sheer egotism that this lesser being shares his exact abilities and possibly outclasses him.
Last edited:
- Location
- Ireland
So I should reinstate that this part of the story was written all the way back in early 2020. So I couldn't use any Eternal stuff given it wasn't out at the time. Nor have I actually seen it. Is it up on Disney Plus yet?Edit: Apparently it was released yesterday. S
Last edited:
And so Pat gets his first movie's end-credits scene.
- Location
- Uk
Yes it is on Disney+,just checked.i think you'll find the characters and their history fascinating (can't say the same about the movie-but I'll let you decide for yourself)
- Location
- Ireland
Yeah, I've not spoiled myself on it but every second person I know dislikes it. I don't know anyone personally that hates it though. Maybe found it boring.
This is going to get pretty weird depending on how big of a deal they end up being in regards to this story lol.
Nothing in the plot, but the opening couple of chapters are a bit fixed up. That'll change in a bit though as I update the chapters on SB with those fixes. This stops really being a thing in the later chapters though. Again this really just a cross-posting effort by me. There's also a version of Fanfic.net, but that one is behind the SB Version and combines multiple chapters into single ones.
Eventually, I'll make a version of A03
- Location
- Uk
I did not personally hate the movie (though I did think the execution could have been better-specifically what did or rather didn't do with the deviants)
I felt the reason given for why they stayed hidden could have been better fleshed out.regardless it a middle of the road MCU movie for me at best.
- Location
- Ireland
Watched it.
I didn't hate it. But it is a very insecure movie in regards to the title Characters. Needing to connect them as the true sources for too wide of myths ontop of the lines about their interactions with Asgard.
But it's not impossible to work with.
Chapter 8
- Location
- Ireland
(Ben Urich)
Ben walked through the offices, heading past the cubicles and toward his room. Excitement ran through his body, there was nothing like a good scoop on the front page to brighten his spirit. Usually only using the paper to bring down a scumbag, exposing who they really were to the world where they would otherwise get away with their crimes would bring him this much joy.
But not today.
Today, he was just as happy to read the headline of the Bulletin.
Gods Among Us!
A strong enough article, though one that was only on the front page from the strength of the information gathered, rather than any elegance that it was written with. To the experienced eye of the seasoned reporter, there were some aspects that Pat needed a lot of work on since it was far too wordy and not didn't have enough introspection on the topic on hand.
But for a first story, it was good.
The article dealt with the appearance of another individual of superior ability, revealing themselves to the world. About how Lugh joined the ranks of Iron Man and the newly revealed War Machine as defenders of mankind, how Lugh protected the city from the rampaging menace of former Stark employee Oliva Octavius. It even went into detail about the nature of her plot, in a dumbed-down way so the average person understood what Octavius was going to do.
Ellison had only just decided to give this story the front page over the events of the Stark Expo, which had been relegated to the second page. The near end of the world was a bigger story than Stark needing to shut down some Hammer Tech illegal mishap.
It was only as he sat down at his desk, ready to type out his own front-page story for the next day that Ben realized something odd, the older man couldn't recall seeing his young apprentice in the office. Pat hadn't been home last night but that wasn't odd for a young reporter writing up their first story to sleep in the office overnight so they could meet the morning edition. So Ben hadn't thought much of it.
But he wasn't at the office either?
That was slightly worrying, especially given the story's connection with some sort of government agency. Before Urick could even step back to his feet, ready to march over to Elison and ask if he'd seen the young man, his office door opened, revealing the Editor walking in as if he had sensed that there were questions for him.
"Hey, good that I've caught you coming in so early," The Editor spoke, his brown beard being rubbed by nervous hands. "Kid ran out of credit on his phone, so he wanted me to tell you he's found another story and is chasing some leads."
"A story?" Ben couldn't help but be confused, his hand reaching for the phone on his desk, even as his mind wandered about the odd speed of the whole event, after having such a big story, Pat's first story in fact, what could've gotten his attention? What story needed him to leave so quickly?
"Didn't tell me what, just that it was low risk, low time investment," Micheal shrugged, not bothered by the fact one of his employees hadn't told him what he was investigating. "I was thinking that the kid was fine, he only wanted to visit a single place."
"Did he tell you where?"
(Pat Doyle: Greyburns College)
"H-hello, I'm a Mr. Pat Doyle, working for the New York Bulletin," I bent and twisted my leg, attempting to be as anxious as possible, looking down a notepad that was in between my hands.
"And how may I help you?" The lady manning the front offices of the Greyburns College campus asked me. The woman had obviously felt a little sorry about how nervous I was, making peeling out any information from her easy.
"I was looking for a Professor… " I trailed off, grimacing while rifling through page after page. "Samuel Sterns, see I am writing this article, a p-puff piece more than anything, about his research into the use of… " Trailing off once more, I brought my eyes up to the sky. "G-gamma Radiation for curing diseases."
The woman grimaced slightly, her hand twirling a single strand of her hair till it was loose.
"I-is something the matter?" I asked, feigning concern due to the woman's rather severe reaction, when in fact, I was actually already suspecting that people weren't going to exactly like the man. Especially if Sterns was the man I'd suspected.
"Nothing, nothing," she responded, rapidly shaking her head, before biting her lip and scrunching her eyes together. It was plain to see that she was struggling to hold something back. "It's just-" her voice pitched higher, "-he's eccentric."
I chuckled lightly, adding just a tiny bit of nervous energy so the woman thought I was put off by what she just said.
"I-I'll be fine, just be prepared to call me doctor if I come back with any extra limbs."
The joke seemed to go over fine, the woman giggling before pointing me in the right direction. It seems that I was in luck, Sterns was in his lab right this second working on some kind of stunning breakthrough that was dazzling the world. Which was concerning, considering the last time I heard those words for a scientist she tried to send her apartment complex into the Bleed between universes and maybe going for another major story so soon, especially given that Octavius hadn't even been arraigned yet, was a bad idea.
But once the lead was pointed out to me, I couldn't help myself but explore where it took me.
It didn't take long before I found myself knocking on the door of Professor Samuel Sterns. I waited for a few seconds, waited for the man to respond… but he didn't. So I knocked harder, this time adding a yell.
"Hey, Professor Sterns! Are you there?" My powerful ears could make the sounds of the man suddenly snapping up, waking from a slumber that he had no doubt fallen into while working late into the night. From the sounds of objects rolling along the ground, I didn't even need to look through the walls to know that papers, pens, and pencils were knocked off the man's desk.
"Coming!" Sterns responded, his voice familiar to me in a way that only nostalgia could be. "I'm coming, you'd think that I'd learn by now not to fall asleep on my desk, it just ain't good for my back."
From the tone of the voice alone, the man sounded far more homely than I would've expected from someone that could eventually become the Hulk villain the Leader. It was then that he actually opened the door. He was close to middle age, if not actually middle-aged, and was a tubby man, but not overly so. I also towered over him with ease, Sterns must've been only 5'6. He had recently shaved and I could tell from how his eyebrows didn't match his hair that it had been died to mask aging.
His clothes were closer to something that I'd expect from someone going to College, rather than someone teaching at one. His pants were three-quarter length jeans, while his torso had on Grayburn College t-shirt with blue cloth jacket over it.
It was then I realized why he looked so familiar.
He looked and sounded like Tim Blake Nelson, a man I was personally most familiar with due to his time in the movie adaptation of Holes, playing Dr. Pendanski, the camp counselor.
"Oh, hello," he exclaimed, his eyes wide in surprise. "I'd thought you were one of my students, looking for me but I don't recognize you."
"I'm actually a reporter for the New York Bulletin, Professor," I informed him, scratching my arms. "I had a few questions about Gamma Radiation for an article and was hoping that I could ask you a few questions and use you as a source?"
The man searched me up and down, his eyes inspecting me as if his eyes were capable of peering through lies. Which was fine by me, I'd not been lying.
"Of course," Sterns smiled, the door opening up follow and the man beckoning me to follow him inside the lab. "I'm always willing to help anyone with an interest in science. Come in, come in."
I followed him in, watching as the man seemed to vibrate with excitement, my eyes taking in the lab that he worked in. It wasn't exactly a Stark grade lab, nothing in here spoke of comic book super science but it was also better than the sewer lab that Octavius had been using.
I'd give it a 7/10.
"So… the questions?" Sterns spoke, bringing me out of my thoughts regarding the nature of labs.
"R-right," I stuttered, honestly a little taken back. "See there was a report of a man dying due to drinking a soda-"
"And that involves gamma radiation?"
"It's what the Coroner's report claims," I replied, looking at a few notes that I'd made about the subject. "It caught me attention because it's odd and I do like looking into odd things. So I was wondering how such contamination could've happened, international goods are screened for radiation and the like… so what could've hidden it?"
Part of me was curious but another already had a brain blast moment. Gamma radiation and South America, I'd seen the 2003 Ang Lee Hulk film, which ended with Banner hiding out down there, so that was my current guess.
Sterns was just to back up my guesses.
"It would have to be in a very specific form," he told me, walking around the island, where a beaker filled with what looked like blood. "If the soda had been irradicated, it would've been picked up, as you've explained. So I'd think that the gamma radiation only started to emit once it hit the man's body."
"Kinda like a chemical reaction. One chemical is inert till it's exposed to another?"
Sterns nodded, his eyes glancing down to the beaker.
"So I'd imagine that in this case, there's a patient zero?" I asked, pausing to scribble down some notes, letting my tongue peek out of my mouth as I did so.
"What makes you say that? Wouldn't the man we're talking be said patient zero?"
I walked around the same island, following him with a lazy sort of energy, letting him take two steps for every one step that I made.
"Nah, see the issue here is that if the soda was the Gamma Source, it doesn't make too much sense that there'd only been one victim… right?"
"Yes," Stern's head nodded, his eyes tightening in focus. "It wouldn't make much sense."
"What sort of chemicals would cause this reaction?"
Sterns frowned, his hands grasping together as I watched him contemplate the idea over a bit. Suddenly he lit up, his eyes going wide, it was my first time watching someone having a true eureka moment.
"What if it's not just the deceased," he started, his excitement expanding with every second that passed. It seemed that Sterns enjoyed the thought experiment if nothing else. "What if there was a period of time where whatever contaminated soda didn't get caught by Goods and Service because it wasn't producing gamma radiation."
"I don't understand?" Truly I didn't, the bottle from what research I'd done, would've been only opened by the deceased. It would've been contaminated before it had been sealed.
"I imagine that our patient doesn't just produce radiation but contains it, as long as it stays within his body. It's inert-"
"But," I interrupted him, thinking that I'd managed to catch the idea he was throwing my way. "Given time away from patient zero, it becomes active again, deadly. Toxic."
"Exactly!"
"How'd this guy gain this extraordinarily useful ability."
"I… can't be sure," his eyes rolled up to the ceiling, full of theories on this subject that would rattle the mind of the layman. "But a Professor Betty Ross-" At this stage he had picked up some of his own notes, showing them to me. "She has made a primer, it is like a bacteria that's designed to reduce or suppress the effects of gamma radiation on the human body. The research never went anywhere but... I think I know why now."
I scribbled down some more notes. Now to actually get some answers that could even potentially calm the normal Joe on the street.
"So now that we've gotten that horrible tragedy out of the way, what can we do to protect ourselves from future incidents?"
"It's hard to say, I can't imagine that this will happen more often," he replied, his eyes glancing over to a side door, a place that was shut from view. "Patient Zero must be dead if he was only able to contaminate one bottle of soda. Perhaps he was killed in some accident?"
If it wasn't for the fact that he kept glancing at that side room, I would've believed that he didn't know much else. But he was just too nervous. With that sign, I took a peek with my visual powers, finding the room was filled to the brim with blood samples, labels given to each with a series of numbers for each… and the alias of Mr. Green.
"I wouldn't think so since if someone had dropped dead from gamma radiation in South America there's no way it would only be one person."
"How do you there aren't dozens of unreported deaths due to gamma radiation in the area?" Sterns asked, his tone polite but his integrity as a man of science obviously making him check that I'd done some research before coming to him.
"Oh… that's a good point," I admitted, shuffling through my notes. "That's why I looked into it. The level of radiation in that one bottle was so toxic that the root incident of radiation would need to be so severe that Chernobyl would look small. It would spread to the entirety of Brazil. They just don't have the capability to contain such an event."
"That would be more than a dozen deaths, millions would've died."
"And more than any corporation could ever hope to cover up," I placed a finger on my lips, trying to make it look like I was thinking about this, rather than having this answer handed to me early. "Which is why it's more likely that patient zero moved in from somewhere else, already irradiated but immune to the lethal effects somehow."
At that statement of mine, I could tell Sterns was a tiny bit confused by what I'd said. Not that I could blame him, I was never good at making up off-the-cuff conclusions.
"S-sorry, I just mean such a person would need to be still alive," I started to twirl one finger around in the air, leaving the pen away from the notepad for the first time since I'd entered the room. "If they could contaminate a single bottle of soda but not more, that would mean they could safely handle being that irradiated. Can you imagine the scientific breakthroughs that could be made with such a man and studying his immunity?"
This bit of news seemed to catch Sterns's attention, the man practically lit up, his face breaking out into a smile that few could match. I watched the man, careful to keep his arms in view as he moved away from the island once more, just in case Sterns tried something.
"We could cure virtually every disease," he muttered, his voice just high enough for me to know that this was something Sterns had told himself before. I could see why the lady had called him eccentric, it seemed that he was ready to bounce off the walls.
"I'd also heard reports of a wild animal attack in the bottling factory that I've traced the bottle back to."
That was another moment, another moment where I could tell that my statement confused him, I could even see the man mouth the words back, as if he was testing the truth of them with his mind.
"Yeah, I don't believe it either, especially due to the accounts of it throwing a forklift," I turned a page on my notes, showing the page to the other man. I'd made sure to write down the size and model of the forklift, just to make sure I didn't get the next part wrong. "At first I didn't think much of it, sounded like it could be true… but I can't find a single mammal large enough that lives in that region of the world that could… well… throw a forklift."
I chuckled a little bit, something that Sterns followed nervously.
It was then that I turned another page, showing him a list of animals that I'd crossed off, including a reason for why they couldn't have done it. Sterns hummed, placing a pair of glasses on his face, I presume that it would be for reading the list better but it could've been to lure me into thinking that he needed them but I could tell that the lenses were faked, just from the way light shined through.
Either that or the man had the lightest prescription that I'd ever seen.
That was also possible.
"I have limited knowledge of the animals that live in that area," he admitted, his eyes scanning the page. "The plants I know more about but I would think your right… there's none that could throw a forklift around that factory."
"Which is why I think it's Patient Zero… "I trailed off, trying to find the right tone in my head for what I was about to say. "But more importantly your alias was noticed, Mr. Blue. So I know you've been in connect with our patient zero, Mr. Green. "
From the way he stiffed, I knew that Fury had given me a great lead last night. It was good to have done some research on those events about the soda myself before coming over.
(Jim O'Reilly)
Jim wouldn't have placed the Boss's tailor to live in a run-down part of Hell's Kitchen, a place that only former cons trying to make a fresh start on the right side of the law would live in since they'd not have many resources to live in better accommodations.
So he knocked on the garage door, his hand hitting the steel with what could only be called a dull thud, echoing throughout the building in front of him. He could barely make out the other sounds that were being made in the garage, like heavy workbenches being pushed off to the side, so a person could work on past them.
"Coming!" A man on the other side yelled it was the kind of voice that O'Reilly expected from a tailor, soft and meek. It helped the former Irish Mobster build an image of the man on the other side.
He'd be a small, meek man, someone that wouldn't be out of place in an old fashion hatter's shop. Maybe he'd have a fine taste clothes himself, a neat suit, and maybe monocle so he could analyze threads of the suits that the man would craft. Perhaps he'd be an elderly man, having been involved in crafting suits for decades. This would be a man of meticulous detail, someone that should be nearly OCD in their level of care for this craft. Jim could imagine a futuristic garage, nearly perfectly white, looking like that room from Willy Wonka with the Chocolate Bar being teleported through a tv.
It was at this moment that the door slid open and revealed what the man truly looked like.
His size rivaled Pat's or Louise's, but only rivaled, standing at around 5'11 and built like a tank. His head was bald and his face only had the barest beginning of a beard, like just hadn't time to shave in the last few weeks.
"H-hello," The Tailor spoke, his voice stuttering, wavering in a way that no man like him should be. It was as if he was terrified of Jim. "Are y-you Mr. O'Reilly?
"Yeah, I am," Jim said, rolling his cigarettes in his pocket, his hands needing something to do. This was not the kind of man that he'd been expecting to see, nor was he acting according to his physical type.
And the older man had learned that things not looking right was something to be concerned about.
Without any further talk between the two, Jim followed the man into the garage while his eyes started to roam the workshop in the garage. It wasn't white, though it wasn't unclean, instead the entire place seemed to look like the normal backroom of a tailor's.
There were fabrics and materials that Jim recognized, regular cotton, nylon, those sort of materials. But then there was an odd row of materials, stuff that the man had never seen before…
… though given Jim had never been interested in that sort of thing, so it didn't mean much.
On the edge of the far-most table, Jim spotted a newspaper, today's paper with Pat's first-page article. Besides that paper, were a series of sketches, first of a logo of some sort of sun and the others were people with hooded capes in many different tight-fitting jumpsuits.
"Fan… of that new hero?" Jim found himself asking, trying for some sort of conversation that would fill up the dead silence that dominated the workshop.
"Y-y-yeah, " The other man stuttered, his eyes falling to his feet. Truly, Jim was starting to worry that this man was far too meek to be working alongside a crime boss. "It's exciting to hear about a real superhero in New York."
"Given the pictures I've seen, the guy should look into getting a new tailor," The former Mobster thought, his eyes glancing at the new designs. "Maybe he'll run into someone half as good as you are?"
The tailor didn't say anything in response to that but the small smile on his face told Jim that if the blue hero came to him, it would make the tailor happy. Eventually, the man motioned for Jim to stand on a podium. The older man didn't need to be told that it was so he could get accurate measurements, this was going to be a custom-designed suit so those were needed, something that would only be worn by him… and according to Mr.Weasley… bulletproof.
Not resistant… but proof.
The former Mobster decided not to try and fill the silence the second time, not wanting to distract the man while he was taking his measurements. Sadly for his goal of silence, Jim's phone rang…
"Ring, ring, ring, Banana phone!" It screamed, causing the Tailor to leap back, frightened briefly by the sudden noise. Jim apologized quietly, evenly as to help calm down the meek man. "I've got a feeling, it's so appealing-"
"Hello," Jim answered his phone, motioning for the Tailor to continue his work measuring him for the suit.
"Pops!" Louise spoke up, excited about something, which was always something to be concerned about because his little girl could get into trouble in a Convent. "I've got some great news, guess who just got a job offer?"
"Pat?" he couldn't help but joke, his smile small. "Story was so good that the Bugle snapped him up with a big offer."
"No."
"Your Mom's threat of getting a job and kicking me out of the house has finally come true?"
"Pops," Louise whined, the voice loud enough that Jim was sure the Tailor could hear him. "Come on, stop playing around, you know that it's me that got the offer."
"It's me? Mario!"
"You are horrible."
"Horribly funny?"
"I'm hanging up now."
"..."
"I got a job offer over at a Stark plant," Louise gave up attempting to have her father guess. "Going to be put in with the security forces. Much more exciting than some crummy office desk work."
"You didn't apply to work at a Stark plant" Jim found himself blinking, confused with the development since he'd been with her when they were applying for jobs. "Why did they off-"
"Whoa!" Louise interrupted him, her voice high pitched in an oh shit, I've said too much sort of way. "Will you look at the time, Pat's calling my name. Will that poor man ever learn to tie his shoes?"
The echoing ring of the phone told the father all he needed to know.
"She hung up on me!" Jim growled clenching his fist in rage. "I tell ya, ever since she could go outside by herself that girl has caused me nothing but trouble."
"Not going to hurt her are ya?" The continuing meek tones of the tailor still took the father of one off-guard. Especially when such a tough-looking guy only seemed to have the ability to have soft expressions.
"Nah," he found himself cajoling the younger man, realizing at last that this was a special individual. Someone that should be handled with a soft touch. Jim wouldn't get anywhere by scaring him, and he didn't even want to know what Fisk would do to him if that happened."I'm just saying thing out loud. My Louise, great girl, good morals, and a tough fighter… just too reckless. Makes me worry is all."
The tailor nodded while his hands held a piece of fabric against Jim's arm. The man seemed to be stuck in deep thought, like he was trying to decide whether something was important, weighing up choices and the risks that would come with it.
At least that was what Jim guessed the tailor was thinking. For all he knew, the man was thinking about how soft a puppy was.
"How about I make her a dress…" Jim couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow at such a statement, something that the tailor seemed to take heed of as he trailed off. "... or a suit?"
Jim's face broke out into a wide grin, his eyes staring right into the tailor's as he struck out his left hand suddenly.
"What's your name, son?"
"Melvin."
(Pat Doyle)
"Well… I just don't… b-but… " Sterns stammered and trailed off, his hand had started out the sentence pointing high in the air, now curled downwards as if the man lost strength with each second. "So.. you're saying that I'm on a watchlist now?"
Sterns wasn't turning out as I'd expected from what little I knew of him from the Hulk animated series. Far more naive, far less arrogant than I'd ever expected from someone most famous for having an ego far larger than his own rather large green head. Maybe in this world, it would be the gamma radiation that makes him go off the deep end. Rather than just increasing his intelligence and enabling him to craft mad schemes for world domination.
"Yeah, the US Military plugged your alias into the SHIELD watchlist," Which was something that I really think needs to be blown wide open. I mean it is very easy to abuse if SHEILD can just monitor everyone like that, not to mention makes me really uncomfortable. "Caught your last talk with Dr. Banner."
"And… that's bad?"
"Yes, it's very bad," I sat down on one of the many stools that were placed around the room. "Think of it this way, all the cures, all those advances in perfecting humanity that you're so excited for? Ross only cares about weaponizing it, of his fame, of how he can make his daughter's ex suffer and advance his own career in a single swoop. You'll be locked up and thrown away for the rest of your life."
It seemed that those words got to him. At least, Sterns seemed torn about the topic now, it was hard for even me to tell if it was because he disliked the idea of weaponizing his research or it was because he didn't want to spend the rest of his life behind jail bars.
"What can I do?" he asked this so earnestly, with such a sorry on his face that I couldn't help but be taken in by it. If I was honest, there was only one thing for him to do.
"Give me a copy of all your research notes," I started to count fingers, one for each step of the plan that I was detailing to him. "A sample of the blood that I know you've got, and then we burn the rest of the stuff, make it seem like an accident."
"And then I'm off the hook?"
"Then they can't prove that you've done anything but involve yourself in roleplay online."
Suddenly the door was knocked, instantly I moved to the wall closest to the door, making such quiet movements that whoever was on the other side couldn't possibly have heard me move unless they were named Murdock. I held a finger towards my lips, making sure that Sterns could see the action. So he could know to keep quiet. Then I peered through the wall, easily spotting the man and a woman, both brunettes, neither all that tall.
From what I could see they didn't have weapons, nor did they have any badges that would reveal they were from any government agencies. With this in mind, I nodded to Sterns, letting him know that it was okay to open the door.
"Hello?" The college professor meekly answered the door, his eyes were the only thing that those from the outside could see.
"It's good to finally meet you, Mr. Blue."
Unlike Sterns, I didn't recognize the man from anything else. Something that made it hard to figure out who exactly it was… till Sterns said the alias that Fury had kept from me.
"Hello… Mr. Green?"
Doctor/Professor Bruce Banner, who held both titles with his many degrees entered the room with a friend, a beautiful woman who I could only presume was Betty Ross. Something that caught my attention was that even though Banner was well-groomed, clean and from what I could tell was in good health, he was jumpy, his eyes searching the room and glaring at me when he found me standing at the wall.
"Who's this?"
I walked into the center of the room, making sure that my eyes were staring at his feet rather than his face. It was a simple way of acting meek, just keep my head down and lick my lips once or twice, add to that scratching me limbs and you got a nervous wreck.
"Pat Doyle," I held out my hand, waiting for the other man to shake it but it never came. Instead, it was the good Doctor's lady friend that shook hands with me, and instantly I could tell she was from the higher class of society, simply due to the soft touch of her skin.
"Professor Betty Ross."
I let an excited smile stretch over my face, allowing my true feelings for this moment to shine through the mask I was wearing. This was an epic moment for me, the Hulk was one of my childhood favs going up and meeting the real-life Bruce Banner was something that I adored.
"You're Professor Ross?" I said, hopping from one foot to the other before bounding down, stopping the bouncing and pointing my finger at Banner's rather stern face. "And that makes you Professor Banner?"
I could hear a beeping noise start to increase in intensity, going faster and faster over time. There wasn't a lot of mystery since his watch was also flashing red. Ms. Ross's hand came upon his shoulder, calming him down and bringing the watch back to its mute state.
"What are you doing here?"
I could tell that I needed to act fast, or my only chance to interview Banner would be gone.
"I-I've managed to follow some bread crumbs, with the help of someone that didn't like Ross getting away with his behavior… the General, not the Miss," I explained rapidly, due to the rather cross look that I'd seen appear on Banner's face. "And so I went looking, managing to piece things together and came here."
"Which means Ross can't be far behind," Banner mumbled, a tired sigh escaping from his lips. Truly this was a man that was mentally exhausted by the whole game with Ross.
"Look, while Sterns sets up the test for curing you," I started to search over my body, feeling my pockets and even going as far as to pull them inside out. It wasn't long before I showed the man the old school-type recorder I kept on my person. "We talk and reveal to the world just what kind of man General Ross is."
"Why should I trust you? We've never met before."
"Look there's nothing that I can say that will make you trust me," I started, finally making sure to stare at Banner right in the eye. "But I became a reporter because I wanted to reveal the corrupt, to show how they truly are to the world. I want to bring Ross from his dark shadow of being a True American Hero, a patriot, I want to cast light on him and reveal to the world that he's a bully that uses his power to advance himself and his interests. Who'll do anything not to protect Americans," I raised my arms into the air and brought the recorder onto the table in front of me. "But to destroy whatever he sees as a threat, whether or not they're American Citizens or even if they've ever committed a crime, just the potential of a threat is good enough for him."
"My father-"
"Attacked a university campus, using weapons that by all accounts were never tested, he used a drop-ship to shoot the place up, nearly killing you," I interrupted Betty with a passion that I'd been hiding from them, causing her to go silent once again. "Hell, my sources say he's back to experimenting on live soldiers, making superhumans once more, another crime that he'll go unpunished for. General Ross is one of the most morally repugnant men that I'm aware of in the coat of this country's military service," I turned back to Banner, who'd kept his face neutral since I started my speech, but I think he was coming to my side. My hand was now itching to start recording and my was face pleading for him to consent. "Help me cast a spotlight on this shadow, reveal Ross for who he is."
Banner replied, after a few seconds of staring at me, with one word.
"Yes."
Author's Note: This is a short but important chapter, also the most technobabble chapter that I've ever written. Don't look too much into the science of what I've written above, it doesn't work but should make enough sense. As long as you don't take it literally. I only use Like a chemical reaction as a figurative matter.
Also the first time meeting between Blueman and Bruce Banner and... a Mr.Blue. One thing that I noticed about Sterns in the film, is that while lacking in some ethical boundaries but he's not evil, he has noble goals.
A man just has a bad case of the mad scientist bug.
Ben walked through the offices, heading past the cubicles and toward his room. Excitement ran through his body, there was nothing like a good scoop on the front page to brighten his spirit. Usually only using the paper to bring down a scumbag, exposing who they really were to the world where they would otherwise get away with their crimes would bring him this much joy.
But not today.
Today, he was just as happy to read the headline of the Bulletin.
Gods Among Us!
A strong enough article, though one that was only on the front page from the strength of the information gathered, rather than any elegance that it was written with. To the experienced eye of the seasoned reporter, there were some aspects that Pat needed a lot of work on since it was far too wordy and not didn't have enough introspection on the topic on hand.
But for a first story, it was good.
The article dealt with the appearance of another individual of superior ability, revealing themselves to the world. About how Lugh joined the ranks of Iron Man and the newly revealed War Machine as defenders of mankind, how Lugh protected the city from the rampaging menace of former Stark employee Oliva Octavius. It even went into detail about the nature of her plot, in a dumbed-down way so the average person understood what Octavius was going to do.
Ellison had only just decided to give this story the front page over the events of the Stark Expo, which had been relegated to the second page. The near end of the world was a bigger story than Stark needing to shut down some Hammer Tech illegal mishap.
It was only as he sat down at his desk, ready to type out his own front-page story for the next day that Ben realized something odd, the older man couldn't recall seeing his young apprentice in the office. Pat hadn't been home last night but that wasn't odd for a young reporter writing up their first story to sleep in the office overnight so they could meet the morning edition. So Ben hadn't thought much of it.
But he wasn't at the office either?
That was slightly worrying, especially given the story's connection with some sort of government agency. Before Urick could even step back to his feet, ready to march over to Elison and ask if he'd seen the young man, his office door opened, revealing the Editor walking in as if he had sensed that there were questions for him.
"Hey, good that I've caught you coming in so early," The Editor spoke, his brown beard being rubbed by nervous hands. "Kid ran out of credit on his phone, so he wanted me to tell you he's found another story and is chasing some leads."
"A story?" Ben couldn't help but be confused, his hand reaching for the phone on his desk, even as his mind wandered about the odd speed of the whole event, after having such a big story, Pat's first story in fact, what could've gotten his attention? What story needed him to leave so quickly?
"Didn't tell me what, just that it was low risk, low time investment," Micheal shrugged, not bothered by the fact one of his employees hadn't told him what he was investigating. "I was thinking that the kid was fine, he only wanted to visit a single place."
"Did he tell you where?"
(Pat Doyle: Greyburns College)
"H-hello, I'm a Mr. Pat Doyle, working for the New York Bulletin," I bent and twisted my leg, attempting to be as anxious as possible, looking down a notepad that was in between my hands.
"And how may I help you?" The lady manning the front offices of the Greyburns College campus asked me. The woman had obviously felt a little sorry about how nervous I was, making peeling out any information from her easy.
"I was looking for a Professor… " I trailed off, grimacing while rifling through page after page. "Samuel Sterns, see I am writing this article, a p-puff piece more than anything, about his research into the use of… " Trailing off once more, I brought my eyes up to the sky. "G-gamma Radiation for curing diseases."
The woman grimaced slightly, her hand twirling a single strand of her hair till it was loose.
"I-is something the matter?" I asked, feigning concern due to the woman's rather severe reaction, when in fact, I was actually already suspecting that people weren't going to exactly like the man. Especially if Sterns was the man I'd suspected.
"Nothing, nothing," she responded, rapidly shaking her head, before biting her lip and scrunching her eyes together. It was plain to see that she was struggling to hold something back. "It's just-" her voice pitched higher, "-he's eccentric."
I chuckled lightly, adding just a tiny bit of nervous energy so the woman thought I was put off by what she just said.
"I-I'll be fine, just be prepared to call me doctor if I come back with any extra limbs."
The joke seemed to go over fine, the woman giggling before pointing me in the right direction. It seems that I was in luck, Sterns was in his lab right this second working on some kind of stunning breakthrough that was dazzling the world. Which was concerning, considering the last time I heard those words for a scientist she tried to send her apartment complex into the Bleed between universes and maybe going for another major story so soon, especially given that Octavius hadn't even been arraigned yet, was a bad idea.
But once the lead was pointed out to me, I couldn't help myself but explore where it took me.
It didn't take long before I found myself knocking on the door of Professor Samuel Sterns. I waited for a few seconds, waited for the man to respond… but he didn't. So I knocked harder, this time adding a yell.
"Hey, Professor Sterns! Are you there?" My powerful ears could make the sounds of the man suddenly snapping up, waking from a slumber that he had no doubt fallen into while working late into the night. From the sounds of objects rolling along the ground, I didn't even need to look through the walls to know that papers, pens, and pencils were knocked off the man's desk.
"Coming!" Sterns responded, his voice familiar to me in a way that only nostalgia could be. "I'm coming, you'd think that I'd learn by now not to fall asleep on my desk, it just ain't good for my back."
From the tone of the voice alone, the man sounded far more homely than I would've expected from someone that could eventually become the Hulk villain the Leader. It was then that he actually opened the door. He was close to middle age, if not actually middle-aged, and was a tubby man, but not overly so. I also towered over him with ease, Sterns must've been only 5'6. He had recently shaved and I could tell from how his eyebrows didn't match his hair that it had been died to mask aging.
His clothes were closer to something that I'd expect from someone going to College, rather than someone teaching at one. His pants were three-quarter length jeans, while his torso had on Grayburn College t-shirt with blue cloth jacket over it.
It was then I realized why he looked so familiar.
He looked and sounded like Tim Blake Nelson, a man I was personally most familiar with due to his time in the movie adaptation of Holes, playing Dr. Pendanski, the camp counselor.
"Oh, hello," he exclaimed, his eyes wide in surprise. "I'd thought you were one of my students, looking for me but I don't recognize you."
"I'm actually a reporter for the New York Bulletin, Professor," I informed him, scratching my arms. "I had a few questions about Gamma Radiation for an article and was hoping that I could ask you a few questions and use you as a source?"
The man searched me up and down, his eyes inspecting me as if his eyes were capable of peering through lies. Which was fine by me, I'd not been lying.
"Of course," Sterns smiled, the door opening up follow and the man beckoning me to follow him inside the lab. "I'm always willing to help anyone with an interest in science. Come in, come in."
I followed him in, watching as the man seemed to vibrate with excitement, my eyes taking in the lab that he worked in. It wasn't exactly a Stark grade lab, nothing in here spoke of comic book super science but it was also better than the sewer lab that Octavius had been using.
I'd give it a 7/10.
"So… the questions?" Sterns spoke, bringing me out of my thoughts regarding the nature of labs.
"R-right," I stuttered, honestly a little taken back. "See there was a report of a man dying due to drinking a soda-"
"And that involves gamma radiation?"
"It's what the Coroner's report claims," I replied, looking at a few notes that I'd made about the subject. "It caught me attention because it's odd and I do like looking into odd things. So I was wondering how such contamination could've happened, international goods are screened for radiation and the like… so what could've hidden it?"
Part of me was curious but another already had a brain blast moment. Gamma radiation and South America, I'd seen the 2003 Ang Lee Hulk film, which ended with Banner hiding out down there, so that was my current guess.
Sterns was just to back up my guesses.
"It would have to be in a very specific form," he told me, walking around the island, where a beaker filled with what looked like blood. "If the soda had been irradicated, it would've been picked up, as you've explained. So I'd think that the gamma radiation only started to emit once it hit the man's body."
"Kinda like a chemical reaction. One chemical is inert till it's exposed to another?"
Sterns nodded, his eyes glancing down to the beaker.
"So I'd imagine that in this case, there's a patient zero?" I asked, pausing to scribble down some notes, letting my tongue peek out of my mouth as I did so.
"What makes you say that? Wouldn't the man we're talking be said patient zero?"
I walked around the same island, following him with a lazy sort of energy, letting him take two steps for every one step that I made.
"Nah, see the issue here is that if the soda was the Gamma Source, it doesn't make too much sense that there'd only been one victim… right?"
"Yes," Stern's head nodded, his eyes tightening in focus. "It wouldn't make much sense."
"What sort of chemicals would cause this reaction?"
Sterns frowned, his hands grasping together as I watched him contemplate the idea over a bit. Suddenly he lit up, his eyes going wide, it was my first time watching someone having a true eureka moment.
"What if it's not just the deceased," he started, his excitement expanding with every second that passed. It seemed that Sterns enjoyed the thought experiment if nothing else. "What if there was a period of time where whatever contaminated soda didn't get caught by Goods and Service because it wasn't producing gamma radiation."
"I don't understand?" Truly I didn't, the bottle from what research I'd done, would've been only opened by the deceased. It would've been contaminated before it had been sealed.
"I imagine that our patient doesn't just produce radiation but contains it, as long as it stays within his body. It's inert-"
"But," I interrupted him, thinking that I'd managed to catch the idea he was throwing my way. "Given time away from patient zero, it becomes active again, deadly. Toxic."
"Exactly!"
"How'd this guy gain this extraordinarily useful ability."
"I… can't be sure," his eyes rolled up to the ceiling, full of theories on this subject that would rattle the mind of the layman. "But a Professor Betty Ross-" At this stage he had picked up some of his own notes, showing them to me. "She has made a primer, it is like a bacteria that's designed to reduce or suppress the effects of gamma radiation on the human body. The research never went anywhere but... I think I know why now."
I scribbled down some more notes. Now to actually get some answers that could even potentially calm the normal Joe on the street.
"So now that we've gotten that horrible tragedy out of the way, what can we do to protect ourselves from future incidents?"
"It's hard to say, I can't imagine that this will happen more often," he replied, his eyes glancing over to a side door, a place that was shut from view. "Patient Zero must be dead if he was only able to contaminate one bottle of soda. Perhaps he was killed in some accident?"
If it wasn't for the fact that he kept glancing at that side room, I would've believed that he didn't know much else. But he was just too nervous. With that sign, I took a peek with my visual powers, finding the room was filled to the brim with blood samples, labels given to each with a series of numbers for each… and the alias of Mr. Green.
"I wouldn't think so since if someone had dropped dead from gamma radiation in South America there's no way it would only be one person."
"How do you there aren't dozens of unreported deaths due to gamma radiation in the area?" Sterns asked, his tone polite but his integrity as a man of science obviously making him check that I'd done some research before coming to him.
"Oh… that's a good point," I admitted, shuffling through my notes. "That's why I looked into it. The level of radiation in that one bottle was so toxic that the root incident of radiation would need to be so severe that Chernobyl would look small. It would spread to the entirety of Brazil. They just don't have the capability to contain such an event."
"That would be more than a dozen deaths, millions would've died."
"And more than any corporation could ever hope to cover up," I placed a finger on my lips, trying to make it look like I was thinking about this, rather than having this answer handed to me early. "Which is why it's more likely that patient zero moved in from somewhere else, already irradiated but immune to the lethal effects somehow."
At that statement of mine, I could tell Sterns was a tiny bit confused by what I'd said. Not that I could blame him, I was never good at making up off-the-cuff conclusions.
"S-sorry, I just mean such a person would need to be still alive," I started to twirl one finger around in the air, leaving the pen away from the notepad for the first time since I'd entered the room. "If they could contaminate a single bottle of soda but not more, that would mean they could safely handle being that irradiated. Can you imagine the scientific breakthroughs that could be made with such a man and studying his immunity?"
This bit of news seemed to catch Sterns's attention, the man practically lit up, his face breaking out into a smile that few could match. I watched the man, careful to keep his arms in view as he moved away from the island once more, just in case Sterns tried something.
"We could cure virtually every disease," he muttered, his voice just high enough for me to know that this was something Sterns had told himself before. I could see why the lady had called him eccentric, it seemed that he was ready to bounce off the walls.
"I'd also heard reports of a wild animal attack in the bottling factory that I've traced the bottle back to."
That was another moment, another moment where I could tell that my statement confused him, I could even see the man mouth the words back, as if he was testing the truth of them with his mind.
"Yeah, I don't believe it either, especially due to the accounts of it throwing a forklift," I turned a page on my notes, showing the page to the other man. I'd made sure to write down the size and model of the forklift, just to make sure I didn't get the next part wrong. "At first I didn't think much of it, sounded like it could be true… but I can't find a single mammal large enough that lives in that region of the world that could… well… throw a forklift."
I chuckled a little bit, something that Sterns followed nervously.
It was then that I turned another page, showing him a list of animals that I'd crossed off, including a reason for why they couldn't have done it. Sterns hummed, placing a pair of glasses on his face, I presume that it would be for reading the list better but it could've been to lure me into thinking that he needed them but I could tell that the lenses were faked, just from the way light shined through.
Either that or the man had the lightest prescription that I'd ever seen.
That was also possible.
"I have limited knowledge of the animals that live in that area," he admitted, his eyes scanning the page. "The plants I know more about but I would think your right… there's none that could throw a forklift around that factory."
"Which is why I think it's Patient Zero… "I trailed off, trying to find the right tone in my head for what I was about to say. "But more importantly your alias was noticed, Mr. Blue. So I know you've been in connect with our patient zero, Mr. Green. "
From the way he stiffed, I knew that Fury had given me a great lead last night. It was good to have done some research on those events about the soda myself before coming over.
(Jim O'Reilly)
Jim wouldn't have placed the Boss's tailor to live in a run-down part of Hell's Kitchen, a place that only former cons trying to make a fresh start on the right side of the law would live in since they'd not have many resources to live in better accommodations.
So he knocked on the garage door, his hand hitting the steel with what could only be called a dull thud, echoing throughout the building in front of him. He could barely make out the other sounds that were being made in the garage, like heavy workbenches being pushed off to the side, so a person could work on past them.
"Coming!" A man on the other side yelled it was the kind of voice that O'Reilly expected from a tailor, soft and meek. It helped the former Irish Mobster build an image of the man on the other side.
He'd be a small, meek man, someone that wouldn't be out of place in an old fashion hatter's shop. Maybe he'd have a fine taste clothes himself, a neat suit, and maybe monocle so he could analyze threads of the suits that the man would craft. Perhaps he'd be an elderly man, having been involved in crafting suits for decades. This would be a man of meticulous detail, someone that should be nearly OCD in their level of care for this craft. Jim could imagine a futuristic garage, nearly perfectly white, looking like that room from Willy Wonka with the Chocolate Bar being teleported through a tv.
It was at this moment that the door slid open and revealed what the man truly looked like.
His size rivaled Pat's or Louise's, but only rivaled, standing at around 5'11 and built like a tank. His head was bald and his face only had the barest beginning of a beard, like just hadn't time to shave in the last few weeks.
"H-hello," The Tailor spoke, his voice stuttering, wavering in a way that no man like him should be. It was as if he was terrified of Jim. "Are y-you Mr. O'Reilly?
"Yeah, I am," Jim said, rolling his cigarettes in his pocket, his hands needing something to do. This was not the kind of man that he'd been expecting to see, nor was he acting according to his physical type.
And the older man had learned that things not looking right was something to be concerned about.
Without any further talk between the two, Jim followed the man into the garage while his eyes started to roam the workshop in the garage. It wasn't white, though it wasn't unclean, instead the entire place seemed to look like the normal backroom of a tailor's.
There were fabrics and materials that Jim recognized, regular cotton, nylon, those sort of materials. But then there was an odd row of materials, stuff that the man had never seen before…
… though given Jim had never been interested in that sort of thing, so it didn't mean much.
On the edge of the far-most table, Jim spotted a newspaper, today's paper with Pat's first-page article. Besides that paper, were a series of sketches, first of a logo of some sort of sun and the others were people with hooded capes in many different tight-fitting jumpsuits.
"Fan… of that new hero?" Jim found himself asking, trying for some sort of conversation that would fill up the dead silence that dominated the workshop.
"Y-y-yeah, " The other man stuttered, his eyes falling to his feet. Truly, Jim was starting to worry that this man was far too meek to be working alongside a crime boss. "It's exciting to hear about a real superhero in New York."
"Given the pictures I've seen, the guy should look into getting a new tailor," The former Mobster thought, his eyes glancing at the new designs. "Maybe he'll run into someone half as good as you are?"
The tailor didn't say anything in response to that but the small smile on his face told Jim that if the blue hero came to him, it would make the tailor happy. Eventually, the man motioned for Jim to stand on a podium. The older man didn't need to be told that it was so he could get accurate measurements, this was going to be a custom-designed suit so those were needed, something that would only be worn by him… and according to Mr.Weasley… bulletproof.
Not resistant… but proof.
The former Mobster decided not to try and fill the silence the second time, not wanting to distract the man while he was taking his measurements. Sadly for his goal of silence, Jim's phone rang…
"Ring, ring, ring, Banana phone!" It screamed, causing the Tailor to leap back, frightened briefly by the sudden noise. Jim apologized quietly, evenly as to help calm down the meek man. "I've got a feeling, it's so appealing-"
"Hello," Jim answered his phone, motioning for the Tailor to continue his work measuring him for the suit.
"Pops!" Louise spoke up, excited about something, which was always something to be concerned about because his little girl could get into trouble in a Convent. "I've got some great news, guess who just got a job offer?"
"Pat?" he couldn't help but joke, his smile small. "Story was so good that the Bugle snapped him up with a big offer."
"No."
"Your Mom's threat of getting a job and kicking me out of the house has finally come true?"
"Pops," Louise whined, the voice loud enough that Jim was sure the Tailor could hear him. "Come on, stop playing around, you know that it's me that got the offer."
"It's me? Mario!"
"You are horrible."
"Horribly funny?"
"I'm hanging up now."
"..."
"I got a job offer over at a Stark plant," Louise gave up attempting to have her father guess. "Going to be put in with the security forces. Much more exciting than some crummy office desk work."
"You didn't apply to work at a Stark plant" Jim found himself blinking, confused with the development since he'd been with her when they were applying for jobs. "Why did they off-"
"Whoa!" Louise interrupted him, her voice high pitched in an oh shit, I've said too much sort of way. "Will you look at the time, Pat's calling my name. Will that poor man ever learn to tie his shoes?"
The echoing ring of the phone told the father all he needed to know.
"She hung up on me!" Jim growled clenching his fist in rage. "I tell ya, ever since she could go outside by herself that girl has caused me nothing but trouble."
"Not going to hurt her are ya?" The continuing meek tones of the tailor still took the father of one off-guard. Especially when such a tough-looking guy only seemed to have the ability to have soft expressions.
"Nah," he found himself cajoling the younger man, realizing at last that this was a special individual. Someone that should be handled with a soft touch. Jim wouldn't get anywhere by scaring him, and he didn't even want to know what Fisk would do to him if that happened."I'm just saying thing out loud. My Louise, great girl, good morals, and a tough fighter… just too reckless. Makes me worry is all."
The tailor nodded while his hands held a piece of fabric against Jim's arm. The man seemed to be stuck in deep thought, like he was trying to decide whether something was important, weighing up choices and the risks that would come with it.
At least that was what Jim guessed the tailor was thinking. For all he knew, the man was thinking about how soft a puppy was.
"How about I make her a dress…" Jim couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow at such a statement, something that the tailor seemed to take heed of as he trailed off. "... or a suit?"
Jim's face broke out into a wide grin, his eyes staring right into the tailor's as he struck out his left hand suddenly.
"What's your name, son?"
"Melvin."
(Pat Doyle)
"Well… I just don't… b-but… " Sterns stammered and trailed off, his hand had started out the sentence pointing high in the air, now curled downwards as if the man lost strength with each second. "So.. you're saying that I'm on a watchlist now?"
Sterns wasn't turning out as I'd expected from what little I knew of him from the Hulk animated series. Far more naive, far less arrogant than I'd ever expected from someone most famous for having an ego far larger than his own rather large green head. Maybe in this world, it would be the gamma radiation that makes him go off the deep end. Rather than just increasing his intelligence and enabling him to craft mad schemes for world domination.
"Yeah, the US Military plugged your alias into the SHIELD watchlist," Which was something that I really think needs to be blown wide open. I mean it is very easy to abuse if SHEILD can just monitor everyone like that, not to mention makes me really uncomfortable. "Caught your last talk with Dr. Banner."
"And… that's bad?"
"Yes, it's very bad," I sat down on one of the many stools that were placed around the room. "Think of it this way, all the cures, all those advances in perfecting humanity that you're so excited for? Ross only cares about weaponizing it, of his fame, of how he can make his daughter's ex suffer and advance his own career in a single swoop. You'll be locked up and thrown away for the rest of your life."
It seemed that those words got to him. At least, Sterns seemed torn about the topic now, it was hard for even me to tell if it was because he disliked the idea of weaponizing his research or it was because he didn't want to spend the rest of his life behind jail bars.
"What can I do?" he asked this so earnestly, with such a sorry on his face that I couldn't help but be taken in by it. If I was honest, there was only one thing for him to do.
"Give me a copy of all your research notes," I started to count fingers, one for each step of the plan that I was detailing to him. "A sample of the blood that I know you've got, and then we burn the rest of the stuff, make it seem like an accident."
"And then I'm off the hook?"
"Then they can't prove that you've done anything but involve yourself in roleplay online."
Suddenly the door was knocked, instantly I moved to the wall closest to the door, making such quiet movements that whoever was on the other side couldn't possibly have heard me move unless they were named Murdock. I held a finger towards my lips, making sure that Sterns could see the action. So he could know to keep quiet. Then I peered through the wall, easily spotting the man and a woman, both brunettes, neither all that tall.
From what I could see they didn't have weapons, nor did they have any badges that would reveal they were from any government agencies. With this in mind, I nodded to Sterns, letting him know that it was okay to open the door.
"Hello?" The college professor meekly answered the door, his eyes were the only thing that those from the outside could see.
"It's good to finally meet you, Mr. Blue."
Unlike Sterns, I didn't recognize the man from anything else. Something that made it hard to figure out who exactly it was… till Sterns said the alias that Fury had kept from me.
"Hello… Mr. Green?"
Doctor/Professor Bruce Banner, who held both titles with his many degrees entered the room with a friend, a beautiful woman who I could only presume was Betty Ross. Something that caught my attention was that even though Banner was well-groomed, clean and from what I could tell was in good health, he was jumpy, his eyes searching the room and glaring at me when he found me standing at the wall.
"Who's this?"
I walked into the center of the room, making sure that my eyes were staring at his feet rather than his face. It was a simple way of acting meek, just keep my head down and lick my lips once or twice, add to that scratching me limbs and you got a nervous wreck.
"Pat Doyle," I held out my hand, waiting for the other man to shake it but it never came. Instead, it was the good Doctor's lady friend that shook hands with me, and instantly I could tell she was from the higher class of society, simply due to the soft touch of her skin.
"Professor Betty Ross."
I let an excited smile stretch over my face, allowing my true feelings for this moment to shine through the mask I was wearing. This was an epic moment for me, the Hulk was one of my childhood favs going up and meeting the real-life Bruce Banner was something that I adored.
"You're Professor Ross?" I said, hopping from one foot to the other before bounding down, stopping the bouncing and pointing my finger at Banner's rather stern face. "And that makes you Professor Banner?"
I could hear a beeping noise start to increase in intensity, going faster and faster over time. There wasn't a lot of mystery since his watch was also flashing red. Ms. Ross's hand came upon his shoulder, calming him down and bringing the watch back to its mute state.
"What are you doing here?"
I could tell that I needed to act fast, or my only chance to interview Banner would be gone.
"I-I've managed to follow some bread crumbs, with the help of someone that didn't like Ross getting away with his behavior… the General, not the Miss," I explained rapidly, due to the rather cross look that I'd seen appear on Banner's face. "And so I went looking, managing to piece things together and came here."
"Which means Ross can't be far behind," Banner mumbled, a tired sigh escaping from his lips. Truly this was a man that was mentally exhausted by the whole game with Ross.
"Look, while Sterns sets up the test for curing you," I started to search over my body, feeling my pockets and even going as far as to pull them inside out. It wasn't long before I showed the man the old school-type recorder I kept on my person. "We talk and reveal to the world just what kind of man General Ross is."
"Why should I trust you? We've never met before."
"Look there's nothing that I can say that will make you trust me," I started, finally making sure to stare at Banner right in the eye. "But I became a reporter because I wanted to reveal the corrupt, to show how they truly are to the world. I want to bring Ross from his dark shadow of being a True American Hero, a patriot, I want to cast light on him and reveal to the world that he's a bully that uses his power to advance himself and his interests. Who'll do anything not to protect Americans," I raised my arms into the air and brought the recorder onto the table in front of me. "But to destroy whatever he sees as a threat, whether or not they're American Citizens or even if they've ever committed a crime, just the potential of a threat is good enough for him."
"My father-"
"Attacked a university campus, using weapons that by all accounts were never tested, he used a drop-ship to shoot the place up, nearly killing you," I interrupted Betty with a passion that I'd been hiding from them, causing her to go silent once again. "Hell, my sources say he's back to experimenting on live soldiers, making superhumans once more, another crime that he'll go unpunished for. General Ross is one of the most morally repugnant men that I'm aware of in the coat of this country's military service," I turned back to Banner, who'd kept his face neutral since I started my speech, but I think he was coming to my side. My hand was now itching to start recording and my was face pleading for him to consent. "Help me cast a spotlight on this shadow, reveal Ross for who he is."
Banner replied, after a few seconds of staring at me, with one word.
"Yes."
Author's Note: This is a short but important chapter, also the most technobabble chapter that I've ever written. Don't look too much into the science of what I've written above, it doesn't work but should make enough sense. As long as you don't take it literally. I only use Like a chemical reaction as a figurative matter.
Also the first time meeting between Blueman and Bruce Banner and... a Mr.Blue. One thing that I noticed about Sterns in the film, is that while lacking in some ethical boundaries but he's not evil, he has noble goals.
A man just has a bad case of the mad scientist bug.
- Location
- Ireland
Something that I should mention is that the original version was very, very different from what you see here. It was set after Civil War but somehow during Season 1 of Daredevil due to some mistakes I had made when I started in regards to timeline.
Everything that showed up there will show up here in one form or the other. Though not really in the same capacity anymore.
Everything that showed up there will show up here in one form or the other. Though not really in the same capacity anymore.
- Location
- United States
I like the story so far. MC could actually fight Thanos 1v1 and come out a Draw.
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA
Just caught up on this, and I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying it.
When he was homeless in the MCU I was thinking it would be really fun, if only he weren't going to get kryptonian powers and go-a-power-wankin'. But I have actually enjoyed his interactions and the slow burn rise to Super levels, and the friends he has made along the way.
When he was homeless in the MCU I was thinking it would be really fun, if only he weren't going to get kryptonian powers and go-a-power-wankin'. But I have actually enjoyed his interactions and the slow burn rise to Super levels, and the friends he has made along the way.
Chapter 9
- Location
- Ireland
(Betty Ross)
Part of her wanted to stop the interview, the interview that would destroy her father's career…. but Betty knew that the General would deserve it. He'd committed many crimes over the past few years, many times abused his power to control her, to advance his career, and as the attack at Culver University was just proof of how far he'd fallen. Innocent lives didn't even factor into things for him.
"And that was when the dropship was called."
"From what I understand the ship was brought down by the Hulk," Doyle spoke, leaning in close to the mic on the table. "Due to the suppression of the events, I'm not sure if there was any loss of life from the attack?"
"I wouldn't know… when I'm it… " Bruce sighed, not having the strength to finish the sentence and allowing his hands to pull at his hair nervously. Betty slid to the stool next to him, grabbing his hand and giving it a tight squeeze. A small smile appeared on his face, the tension drained like steam in a sauna. "When I'm the Hulk, it's like a drunk blackout. I can't recall anything I do like that when I wake up."
"And you… you both say that the General never informed you two on the true nature of the project that you were working on," The reporter made circles in the air with his hands, as if it somehow illustrated his point. "How dangerous was this? Ignoring the illegal nature of super solider projects in the current world climate."
"Very dangerous," Betty found herself interjecting. While this was mainly an interview with Bruce and Doyle, the younger man thought that adding her own input to it would be good for adding legitimacy. "Without knowing the results other groups were aiming for with the project we didn't have a hope with making any adjustments."
"And given that this all involved radiation that was potentially lethal."
It was obvious to Betty that Doyle wasn't ignorant of science. He was informed enough that he knew some of the questions that needed to be asked. But not enough to know what exact terms always meant, anything more complicated than a College Freshmen's level of understanding was above him. But only meant that Bruce and she needed to coach him a little just before starting the interview.
Before there was another question coming out of the Irishman's mouth, Sterns burst into the room, his eyes wide in excitement.
"It's ready!" he yelled, running back into the lab with the same energy that one would expect from a child Christmas morning. They paused the interview for the moment, they'd already gotten a few crimes that her father had committed out of the way first thing, just in case the General's forces get here sooner than they feared.
So they prioritized the cure over the interview.
The three of them moved fast, catching up with the Professor as he ran around the cramped room, as the operating table in the center took up so much space. Pat stood out of the way, in the one empty corner of the room. Betty moved to help Sterns strap Bruce onto the table.
"Now, I do want to remind you, not to get your hopes up too much," Sterns spoke, his hands lifting up a large tube of liquid, the supposed cure. "Even if this works in this instance, there's no way to know if this will be permanent. It could even kill you given the levels of toxicity we're playing with it here. "
"I understand," Bruce replied, his eyes though were still full of so much hope that it almost broke Betty's resolve not to give him constant hugs, just to reassure him. It would be too much, too fast. "Just do it."
The straps were the first thing that they did, fastening them before attaching the needed instruments to the temple of the gamma-powered superhuman's forehead. Betty glanced back to Doyle, noting his intense gaze towards Bruce. It reminded her of her father's stare, it wasn't hostile but it had the same style of prepared readiness that one would expect from someone that had been trained to anticipate danger at any moment.
It was a bizarre contrast from the eccentric and passionate reporter that she'd been speaking to. Almost like the man had a switch in his head that turned him from naive and kind of goofy, to serious at a moment's notice.
"Now, this might sting."
As Sterns said this, he pushed a button down on the console nearby, initiating the first phase of the process. This involved inducing an episode, meaning turning Bruce into the Hulk. In a slow, painful-looking process compared to the more rapid transformation that they'd usually come to. Bones snapped up, muscles expanded as his skull did the same. His skin gradually started to change in tone, going from a normal, if slightly tanned, caucasian to bright emerald green.
Sadly the restraints were designed for a normal man, they started to bulge and snap as Banner transformed, the operating table compressing slightly under the increased weight of the man as the process continued.
Sterns went to start the next phase, applying the cure, but it was too soon.
"No!" Betty found herself yelling, stopping Sterns in his tracks. "There's more."
Out of the corner of her eye, Betty could barely make out Doyle stepping ever closer to the table, his hands coming out of his pocket and rising till they were just above his waist. As if he was getting ready to stop the Hulk if he went on a rampage. Obviously, the reporter hadn't researched Bruce to the fine detail that he wanted people to believe.
When the Hulk started to snap his remaining restraints, Betty was ready, practically leaping on top of the emerging emerald giant. Keeping her voice low, she spoke soothing words that seemed to calm the Hulk, if only briefly.
"Sterns!" Betty yelled once more, keeping her eyes staring into the Hulk's own. "Do it now!"
While that little event happened, Betty didn't see Doyle's head snap in the opposite direction. His face snarling and his ears metaphorically pricking up. Before the reporter yelled out.
"We've got company!"
Betty nearly glanced back to the reporter but instead continued to look down below, as the green face of the Hulk started to sink, his skin returning to the normal color of a man belonging to his race. It wouldn't matter if her father brought the entire armed forces in here, not if Bruce was cured. She could hear the door in the other room be kicked in, so hard in fact that the wood and glass that were part of it shattered as it hit the opposite wall. Doyle moved fast, charging into there with nary a concern on his face, the door closing shut on the way behind him.
The resulting gunshots told Betty all she needed to know… that was till there was even more gunfire.
Being the daughter of a general, Betty recognized the caliber of the gun, if not the exact model. It was a standard-issue 9mn pistol. Letting her count the number of shots that were fired so she could tell when it was going to run out. Of course, she knew it only takes a second to replace the magazine. Which gave them some chance, given Bruce was now knocked out and no longer the Hulk beneath her body. As fast as the woman could, she stepped down from Bruce's body, who was still squirming beneath the few bindings that remained.
It was at the end of this process when Doyle was thrown back through the lab door, smashing onto the ground and sliding them across the surface till he reached the leg of the table. A man came out, Betty recognizing him as the man from before, the one that had tried to take the Hulk on his lonesome.
It was a surprise that the man was on his feet and not in a hospital bed.
"No," he whispered, his face curling up into a fierce snarl as his eyes caught the sight of Bruce on the operating table. "No! You won't rob me of a rematch!" The Soldier threw himself forward, coming at Bruce with his combat knife held out.
But just as he was within a single inch, suddenly Doyle stood up, pulling the soldier up into the air by the ankle and slamming him down into the floor with so much force that blood splattered into the air. Bruce came to his senses at this moment, the jerk of movements drawing Betty's eyes away from the amazing scene that had just transpired. This meant that she missed the sight that both Bruce and Sterns saw… bullets popping out of Doyle's head and hitting the floor with only the lightest of pings.
"Incredible!" Sterns yelled,
"We don't have much time," Doyle spoke, spitting out a wad of blood onto the still form of the soldier. "Sterns with me, Banner and Ross need to leave now," Nearly slipping on the bloody floor, the reporter threw a heavy overcoat towards Bruce. it was bigger than the scientist, hopefully, would disguise the ripped pants and lack of top. "The rest could get here in any second."
Silently, Betty helped Bruce to his feet, shoving his arms into the coat with little force before letting him lean his weight onto her shoulders for support. It wasn't long before they were making their way out of the room. Betty turned around to thank the reporter… only to find something odd. Doyle was trying to swallow his recorder, the device not properly fitting in his mouth. At least, not with the plastic bag he had wrapped around it, the air in there bubbling up and stopping it from going past his front teeth.
Betty decided that she didn't need to thank him yet.
"You'd think that someone like him would've heard of USB Drives at this stage," she couldn't help but wonder out loud.
(General Thaddeus Ross)
"Blonsky!" Ross screamed over the radio, the other man clearly being heard on the other side throwing his own radio off his ear and to the ground. It was only the cameras they had looking at the building that allowed him to see the former royal marine sprinting towards the building moving at a far faster rate than any man had any right to.
"That's our taxes running off," One of the technicians muttered, his voice going unnoticed by the General as frustration caused the man to growl loudly.
With that same sort of energy, Ross grabbed his own pistol, yelling out for their entire forces to move in now. While it wasn't how he wanted, the General knew that thanks to Blonsky going off like this, it was the time to act now. Before Banner had a chance to transform into the Hulk again.
There was a clinical precision to the movements of the General as he made his way towards the building. Usually, he wouldn't put himself so close to the frontlines, not because the man wasn't willing to take the same risk as his men, but because he knew with his advanced age, his place was no longer on the frontlines. Ross's experience in leading men now mattered more than his experience in killing men.
But when it was his daughter at risk, Ross was willing to risk death.
It only took a minute and a half to reach the lab of Dr. Sterns, where it had taken Blonsky twenty seconds. The door had been broken, barely hanging onto the frame by a single hinge on top. They surrounded the entry into a side room, tranquilizers at the ready for Banner. Ross took note that Blonsky was nowhere to be seen, even though there was a clear sign of a struggle, given the number of bullet holes the General could make out around the room. But it was then that his eyes caught the trail of blood that lead to the side room.
With a hard kick, they all went into the room…
"Hello, there," Dr. Sterns said in response to this, his expression a nervous smile, while a twenty-something brunette man sat on a nearby operating table, his own face staring down at the unconscious Blonsky beneath his feet.
"Are you after this man, sir?" The unidentified male asked, pointing down at Blonsky, his face just as nervous as Sterns's. "Because if you're not, I swear, this isn't what it looks like."
"And what does it look like?"
The youngest man among the group glanced around the room, an act that Ross couldn't help mirroring, taking in their surroundings with a far more analytical eye than he would usually use. There were shards of broken glass all over the place, chemicals were dripping from shelves. There were even large machines, with equipment that reminded the General of electrical shock therapy.
"Doesn't this look like an evil lab?" The young man shrugged, bringing Ross's attention back to him. From the rather peeved expression on the doctor's face, it seemed this insulted Sterns's feelings.
"We don't have time for this, where is Banner?" Ross held his pistol right between the smart mouth's eyes, something that caused him to visibly flinch. "I don't want this to get messy, son."
"Banner?" he responded, his eyes shifting towards Sterns as if asking him a question. "No idea who that is."
"Mr. Green!" Ross screamed, his face heating up from rage. "Where is Mr. Green."
"But… I am Mr.Green."
(Doctor Sterns)
Sterns felt that he was lucky to be placed in interrogation with Doyle. This was likely done because the military was short on time, but it also spoke to him of the sheer illegality of the events going on here. General Ross didn't want this to get out. Just like Doyle had expected. Even down to how they were handcuffed to the table. Honestly, any plan that involved getting handcuffed just made Sterns nervous.
"Tell me, how do a college professor and a reporter meet?" It was the General doing the job, interrogating the two of them with a harsh glare. The room they were in was another back room in the college, a storage room if the doctor's memory wasn't failing him.
With a single light source set up in the room, no doubt some part of a mental trick that they use to mess with people.
"W-well," Doyle started, stuttered and gasping his hands together with a nervous energy that Sterns had only seen from freshmen or seniors after cramming all their studies into a single night for a test the following morning. It was an impressive act. "I was r-researching things for an s-story. An elderly man… "
His fingers turned pale as he trailed off, they were intertwining and rubbing against each other to cause this effect. Doyle even let his line of sight fall to the floor, his eyes now staring at his shoelaces as they blinked rapidly.
"... well," he eventually picked up, seemingly gaining confidence as he started to speak. "He died from gamma radiation, something that I was told he picked up from drinking soda. Now, I wanted to write an article on this, weaving this into one on the dangers of gamma overall. So I looked for someone online. Found some forums, spoke to a few people and Mr. Blue here came up."
Sterns noted that it was a good idea, use his online alias like this. Dangerous, because it brought attention back to him, which was something Doyle said would be bad in this situation. But it did do a decent job in making the alias sound more innocent than his involvement with Banner implied... legally that is.
"That's convenient," Ross replied, "Sterns this-"
Doyle did something odd, something that was out of the character that he seemed to like playing. He openly scoffed, even rolling his eyes into the air.
"Something funny, Doyle?" Ross asked, the door behind him, opening up to reveal a female soldier, dressed in green camo walking in to sit beside the General. Sterns could barely make out the badge stretched on saying, Major Kathleen Sparr.
"Why is it convenient?" Doyle spoke, his grin sharp, his finger now pointing at the center of the table they'd been cuffed to. There was a odd amount of anger there, for what was an otherwise innocent enough phase. "Is it convenient that without any justification that I've been confined, not for anything resembling wrongdoing… but because you found a generic ass alias online? That's not convenient, that's inconvenient… and a waste of time."
"How'd you know that we found you by that alias?" Major Sparr asked, a single brow raised as if she'd caught him out.
Doyle wriggled a finger at the general, suddenly being far too cheeky for his own good. It also wasn't part of the plan, they were meant to act scared and feeble.
"The General here, he opened with it."
Doyle seemed to take pleasure in changing his mannerisms every few seconds. One stage he'd be a nervous wreck, next he'd be an expressionless face, and now he was a smug ass. Sterns wasn't sure if this trick would put the two off their game. But he hoped.
The Major sighed, glaring slightly at her superior, but only from the corner of her eyes. Meaning that Ross didn't spot it. It was something that gave Sterns a small amount of hope that the General wasn't just going to lock him away in a cage somewhere. Not if there were some people working for him that would squeal on him at any rate.
"So… you two are saying that it's a coincidence?" Ross asked. "That the two of you are here, where we have images of a wanted fugitive entering the building then?"
Doyle glanced towards Sterns, and for a second the older man was taken back by the raw smugness that the reporter started to show. Because the man leaned back into his seat and stared Ross right into the eye and said;
"Yup."
Ross slammed his hands onto the table, causing Sterns to jerk back in fright, the general snarling at the pair before roaring out, causing two reactions. The first came from Sterns once more, the man letting a whimper out as he tried to cower away from the military man. And the other was Doyle, nonchalantly whistling as he placed his hands into his pockets.
"Do you think this is a game?!" The General continued to roar, his face growing ever redder, even as he grabbed the reporter's collar and lifted him up, his nose just an inch away from the other man's. "You've both committed treason against the United States, that's an executable offense."
Doyle scoffed once more.
"Please, we wouldn't be held in a random room in Greyburn College if you could pin something like that on us."
Sterns gulped, the noise loud in the oppressive silence. Doyle was walking a thin line, it wouldn't be good if the General decided to Blackbook kill them in this room, maybe he'd even pin it on Banner.
"You seem sure of yourself," Ross returned, letting go of Doyle's shirt, something that allowed the reporter to smooth out the creases caused by the interaction. "You think yourself invincible."
There was an unsaid threat left lingering in the air, something that Doyle ignored, instead he focused his attention on the major.
"Tell me, has Ross here committed a lot of illegal activities at late? Seems like the type when he's doing plenty of black ops stuff this… really he shouldn't be allowed to," Doyle shrugged as he sat back down, the woman staring at him as blankly as she could, though Sterns could see how she bit the inside of her mouth to keep herself from talking. "Especially given his failure rate at… well, life."
"You seem to know a lot about me," Ross held up a hand, stopping Major Sparr from speaking out. "Where did you get your information from? Who's your source?"
"You are."
There was a beat of silence, one where the Major couldn't help the smile that lit her face up, while the General couldn't help when another growl passed through his lips. The man had made that noise so much now that Sterns couldn't help but wonder if the General hadn't had some work done on himself.
"What?" It was a flat response, well as flat as one could make it at least when coming off a growl.
"Every time I open my mouth, you give me just a little more information," The reporter began to explain. "Every question you ask doesn't just tell me a little bit more about this whole incident, it tells me more about you."
"I doubt it," Was the General's only response. "More likely you're just taking random shots in the dark."
"What about this, you came here because of an alias getting triggered," Doyle pointed at Sterns but never stopped staring at Ross. "This alias belongs to a fugitive, one that you've been tracking for some time if your demeanor is to be trusted."
"Does this have a point? You're just repeating what I've told you back to me."
"You're right, but it's also why I know you're such a failure."
Ross snarled, his fist tightening on the table, an event that seemed to go by unnoticed by the reporter, who went on to explain the failure further.
"You've been chasing this one man, whoever it is doesn't matter, but what… he's just always out of your grasp. The entire might of the US military behind this operation and you can't catch a guy that spent his life behind a desk? You ever think that you're just a dumb jock preten-"
The punch that happened next took Sterns by surprise, causing the man to yelp and nearly fall off his chair, his fear rising with each passing second Doyle didn't respond to this. Instead, he just rotated his head lazily around.
"You sure that you're a general?" Doyle asked, his chin lazing on the palm of his right hand, the links of his cuffs staining enough that Sterns felt the need to kick the other man under the desk to stop him from snapping the thing into pieces. "Seems more like a hotheaded ensign."
"Watch your mouth, punk! I was serving this country before you were a glint in your father's eye," Ross said, rubbing his bruised knuckles while glaring at the unresponsive form of Doyle, who only took in a deep breath and kept his eyes closed.
"I'm pretty sure that my Dad was older than you."
"You might think I can't just kill you and throw you in some hole but-"
The door to the room was knocked on, interrupting Ross from making his threat and causing the door to shake as if the person on that side were running from the hounds of hell. Stern could see Doyle open his left eye only slightly before a wide tooth-filled grin took over his face.
"I said that I was not to be disturb-"
"General Ross," A blonde woman, dressed in a suit and wearing a pair of dark sunglasses entered the room. There was a small but polite smile on her lips. "I'm agent Bobbi Morse, of SHIELD, I'd ask that you'd release both Mr. Doyle and Dr. Sterns."
"On what grounds? We have jurisdiction on this matter."
It was the Major that brought this up, due to Ross not even bothering to speak. Instead, he continued to stare right into Doyle's grinning visage, as if seeing a challenge in the younger man's eyes that the General couldn't stand to see unbroken.
"Fortunately, you don't," Agent Morse nodded, handing the Major a white sheet of paper, Sterns couldn't make out most of what was on the sheet, just the US and SHIELD crests that were marked on the corners. "The second that you used SHIELD assets without informing my agency this became a SHIELD matter. So once more, I'd ask that you release the two into my custody."
There was a tense few seconds of silence, one punctuated with Ross sending each and every person in the room a powerful glare. Major Sparr placed a hand on the General's arms, there was a loud aggressive sight that came from Ross's lips after that, before he reached into his pocket and threw a pair of keys down onto the table.
"Oh, I don't need that," Doyle said, raising his hands with an evil grin on his face. With a cling, the cuffs fell to the table, not broken but having already been unlocked. "See I nicked the key off you when you ruffled my collar and even put the damn thing back in before you noticed."
Ross's mouth dropped open as Doyle picked up the key and released Sterns. The two of them walked after the Agent of SHIELD, an agency that Sterns hadn't heard of before now. That was something that set him on edge, given Doyle's behavior overall during this. Like he'd expected it. Had Sterns walked in from one government operation run by a General obsessing with putting away his daughter's boyfriend, to one where a man had handed him over to a shadowy spy organization?
"That was fun," Sterns said, as they stepped into the female's car. The two of them turned to him, Doyle having let out a massive sigh of relief, while Morse turned to face the doctor. "Can my cells be away from his, he kind of scares me?"
(Emil Blonsky)
He woke up his head… feeling fine. One would think that having it smashed against the floor of a lab that the former marine would awake with his head-splitting, but that didn't seem to be the case. Instead, he woke up with his nose blocked, and from what he could tell…
… the blockage was merely dried blood that had crusted around the top of his nostrils.
Blonsky stood up fast, ignoring how heavy his head felt or how his vision swarm. Instead, he blew hard out his nose, holding one side close so the most force could be concentrated through one nostril. A blob of blood ejected out of his nose and splattered against the floor.A medic took notice of the man now standing, the former marine having been taken to the command bus to get treatment for his injuries.
"Blonsky, you-" Before the unnamed man could finish his sentence, Blonsky took the tray from his bed and smacked him in the head with enough force that it caused the man to be imprinted in the metal. With a thud, the medic fell down.
"Get out of way," Blonsky could feel his body sweat, could feel parts of his arms twitch and bulge in time with the beat of his heartbeat. There was a threat, he could feel one nearby, Blonsky knew he needed to deal with it.
Deal with all the threats.
But he couldn't do that, do it like he was now.
He needed more power… but the biggest issue was Blonsky wasn't sure where he'd get more power. It was unlikely that Ross would be willing to let him have another injection of the serum, Blonsky could tell from the sound of his voice, from the way that his body sweated and tensed. The General would only think of him as a junky.
But it was more than that, it was the thrill of the fight. The raw challenge before him.
It was then that Blonsky recalled just how he ended up in this bed, the man that he shot, the man that got up from that like it was nothing. A realization churned through his mind.
"Another one," Emil smiled, pulling off his military gear as he began to get dressed into civies. "If I get him, I get more."
It was a simple enough concept to grasp, someone with that level of physical prowess couldn't have been a normal human. The man must have been a super soldier just like him. It would make sense that Banner would try and meet with a fellow like that, someone that could help him keep under control while trying out the cure.
But now Blonsky needed to find out where this new man was, who he was, and how he got his amazing powers. Then once he had the secret and gained the power for himself, the former marine would finally get the fight he needed; the fight he desperately deserved. Oh, how Blonsky burned to be tested, how he burned to force himself to higher levels of power, all the while showcasing how his superior experience and skills would allow him to overwhelm those with a slight power advantage.
It was as he put on his t-shirt that Blonsky felt his vertebrae cut through the thin material of the shirt, ripping further as it came down to his waistline. Growling softly, Blonsky grabbed a jacket instead, deciding that his enhancements would more than makeup for being a bit chilly. Blonsky threw two such shirts over his own, before grabbing a tacky jean jacket nearby and buttoning it up as tight as the clothing could be. It was the cap that he grabbed on his way out that didn't fit him at all, it only hung loosely around the top of his head.
Slowly, Emil made his way out, managing to get around the few patrols Ross had left nearby with the use of both his superior stealth training and his newly received prowess letting him move in ways and with such speed that no one would think that a person had just passed them. Soon, the former marine managed to disappear into the night, into the city crowds. Ross wouldn't realize till later that his new pet project had gone AWOL. Something that wouldn't help with the General's mood when he saw the evening edition of the New York Bulletin.
Rage seemed to be the theme of the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project.
(Pat Doyle)
This was not how I thought my morning would go. It was meant to be a simple in and out before anything really happened. Then reveal to the world just what kind of man we were dealing with General Ross, ruin that son of a bitch's career and even make my own career seem all that brighter. What I hadn't expected was puking my guts out in the back of a secret agent's black sedan to get the recorder I shallower to hid it from General Rose earlier.
"I mean it was insane," With my head down between my legs and my mouth open into a plastic bag, I couldn't see Sterns as he said that, but I could hear him moan on about it from his seat beside the driver of this little vehicle. "We had a plan and he didn't even stick with it. Doyle's there provoking the man. Given what both Banner and Dr. Ross were saying about the General, I'm surprised that we weren't killed and put into an unmarked grave."
"Hey," I groaned, a plastic bag having passed painfully through my mouth at last. Meaning, I could finally stop inducing vomiting to get the damn thing, "Ross isn't capable of killing me… you on the other hand… "
"How is that meant to be reassuring!" Sterns yelled, his face red and his body hopping up and down on his seat. I laughed, winking at the man as he turned around to face me. I noticed that Morse was grinning in the rearview mirror, probably finding the byplay between us funny as she drove us to…
"Where are we going?"
Sterns had another fit of yelling at this, I wasn't sure exactly what he was saying probably something about gambling and lives? Not sure, I wasn't really listening to the man at this stage; instead, I waited for the SHIELD Agent to actually reveal something to me.
"I'm taking Sterns to a safe house for a week," Morse spoke, her eyes clearly on the road before us. "Then after that… Fury has an offer for you doctor." Sterns didn't say anything to this; in fact, I couldn't tell if he was excited about the idea or if he was still angry that I plan on the anger game with Ross.
"And I?"
"You?" she responded, her left brow quirking up and her lips gave me a sweet smile. "You get to go home, write that story that the director seemed to have led you to."
There was something odd about the situation. Something that I couldn't put my finger on. Maybe it was the way that Fury seemed to want Ross taken out of the picture, at least in terms of influence. Maybe it was the ease that he'd given me information. I'd known from the beginning that he was using me, but when I've been given such a juicy target to take down. How could I've resisted taking a bite out of it?
What I didn't know was… what had Ross done to piss off Fury?
The Director of SHEILD wasn't the kind of man to shy away from doing the same deeds that Ross was about to get hung out to dry for. If anything I knew about Fury from the Ultimate Marvel line applied here, and given his appearance, it seemed likely, then I couldn't let him know that I suspected that he knew that I knew that he was using me. Let him think he was one step ahead of me.
I was fast enough for that not to matter.
"So what's in the bag?" She asked, glancing at the bag of sick that I held in my hand. This was something that I wish she hadn't done because if she hadn't mentioned it I would've been able to ignore the horrid smell of the puke bag in my hand. "I mean, I know it's a recorder but what did you record?"
I glanced at the mirror, her eyes meeting mine for a few seconds while the two of us gauged the other. There was a moment where I became worried that she was going to crash due to staring at me for far too long.
"I'm calling it the Banner/Ross Interview: The Truth of a Patriot."
To her credit, the woman didn't flinch, nor did she grin at this news. Instead, Morse wore a carefully crafted bland expression that betrayed nothing of her feelings on the matter, neither positive nor negative.
"That's a big story," Morse replied, her eyes returning to the world in front of the car while her hands tightened around the steering wheel. From his spot beside the woman, Sterns stared at me mouthing words that I didn't quite get. "Your second in two days, you certainly don't wait for the ink to dry, do you?"
"The truth doesn't wait for anyone, Agent," I replied, leaning back and closing my eyes. There was only one issue with the last two days of events as far as I was concerned… I hadn't let myself sleep at all. I was too busy researching things through the night, too busy connecting the dots together so I could produce a story that Ellison would accept, with evidence and dates, with the tape I had now, that meant I had more than conjecture. "You gotta grab it and push it to the spotlight. So all the world will know and no one can deny."
But even the current story would be hard for the man to accept. There was a lot of flak that the paper could get from me bad-mouthing someone as celebrated for his long time serving the country. Even if he had been a major, talking about one of American's patriots like this would get push back from both sides of the media.
Most left-leaning and right-leaning media companies didn't like people calling on the military like I wanted to do.
But I was sure I could wear the man down to publish the story. It was just too big of a story for him to ignore, it was bigger than the Ock Story, if only because of how high-ranking Ross is, how much influence, and how many lives and resources he'd wasted hunting down an otherwise innocent man.
My eyes closed for what only felt like a second, but as I knew from how the sounds of the world outside the car passed us by that it was for longer than that. I'd fallen half-asleep, it was sort of embarrassing but I've learned from a long childhood with a lisp that there were far worse things.
"This is your stop," Morse spoke, her voice softly waking me from my sleep. It seemed that I'd been asleep for around an hour if we'd gotten to the Bulletin in such a short time, though I'd say given how traffic usually is, it could've been two hours.
Before I could open my mouth, my ears perked up, the sound of an engine roaring filling them. It was too late for me to warn anyone about this. The crash that came flipped the car over as the door next to me was hit with so much force that I felt it.
The world swarm around, the lights blending together in a soup that I could only describe as nauseating. Shutting my eyes tight in an attempt to combat this feeling, the next thing that I could make out was the sound of someone breaking apart metal above me. It was then that I could feel a hand, cold, clammy, and sweating like a pig, pick me up by the collar.
I was pulled up and out of the car, letting me feel the blood pouring out of my forehead, a cut split open there.
"I've got you now, punk," A man spoke, his voice unfamiliar but the one thing that I could make out was the pain the speaker was obviously in, it was strained and sounded out of breath as if the man couldn't breathe right. To my inexperienced ear, it sounded like a person who was jonesing for a fix, an addict that was looking for just one more dose of their fave.
Have I been taken out by a druggie?
"Tell me," he said, pulling my eyes open with two of his fingers. This revealed that the attacker was Ross's pet super-soldier. Emil Blonsky, something that Fury had warned me about. "Where did you get your juice from? Russians? No, maybe some kind of Irish attempt to replicate Captain America?"
Huh, was hoping that I hit him hard enough that he wouldn't remember that I had super strength.
Before I could even try to speak, his hands wrapped around my throat, squeezing tightly and hard. Blocking my airflow and causing me to gasp more out of shock than pain but it at least worked to block my airflow, but not to cause me pain. Something that confused me… but not something that I had time to ponder on.
Acting without much thought, I punched him in the chest, causing the soldier to be flung back into his car, smashing the windshield with so much force that it was shattered into tiny pieces, the shards digging into his skin and his blood pouring out onto the front seats of the vehicle. I wiped my own blood from my face, something that seemed to combine with my wounds sealing to return my sight to normal. My heart rate slowed back down to normal, my head stopped arching and I took a deep breath, letting oxygen fill my lungs.
I turned around, moving to the wreck of Morse's car with steady but slow steps.
"Hey, you guys ok!"
"Yeah!" Morse was the one to reply, her face popping out of the open side window before she dragged herself out of the car, her hand coming down to pull Sterns out as well. "I'm fine, but the doctor should go to a hospital, he's is pretty cut up."
"That-" Before I could finish the sentence, I heard a gun cock, my body spinning around so fast that the coming bullet was moving in slow motion, allowing me to try something that I'd always wanted to try.
"Yoink!"
Much to the surprise of the already healed and upright Blonsky, I dropped the bullet of his 9mn pistol to the ground, letting him see the near-perfect condition projectile roll across the asphalt. I could make out the excitement of a forming crowd along the sidewalks, from the cars that had stopped in the road, trying to not run into either the wreckage or me and Emil.
"I don't believe it?" he whispered, looking to his gun, before firing off every round left in the clip. Twelve rounds were fired in rapid succession, each one accompanied by a wave of my hand, letting him see how each seemly disappeared before I let them all drop into a single pile of bullets.
"Believe it!" I held up a fist in front of my face, watching him throw the gun to the ground before running over to me with a yell.
I hadn't expected him to be so fast, but I still weaved around his kicks, his punches, and even a headbutt with ease that only seemed to anger the man further. But sadly for what I was now hoping would be an easy ride, my punch was ducked, his body rolled back so when his legs kicked out, I'd flip over him. Thankfully, the ground and I had come to an agreement with each other, so instead of crashing into it, I floated a few inches above the ground and stamped out my momentum, then touched down on the ground and flipped back to my feet.
"So do-" Instantly, I was knocked back, an explosion ranging in my ears. This time, there was no pain, I was only knocked onto my back, my coat being ripped apart by the mix of heat and motion of sliding along the asphalt.
I looked up to find Blonsky holding a grenade launcher, the barrel of the gun smoking at me while he smirked, his eyes almost bulging out of his sockets with excitement. Before he could get off another grenade into my face, a few rounds were fired into his weapon.
It was Agent Morse, her sidearm aimed perfectly, and so it took only two rounds hitting the chambers before the whole thing exploded in Blonsky's hands, red chunks and smoke flying everywhere around us.
When it finally cleared… Blonsky was somehow still alive, though groaning from his position on the ground, his limbs were wrecked messes that I couldn't even have begun to describe.
Part of her wanted to stop the interview, the interview that would destroy her father's career…. but Betty knew that the General would deserve it. He'd committed many crimes over the past few years, many times abused his power to control her, to advance his career, and as the attack at Culver University was just proof of how far he'd fallen. Innocent lives didn't even factor into things for him.
"And that was when the dropship was called."
"From what I understand the ship was brought down by the Hulk," Doyle spoke, leaning in close to the mic on the table. "Due to the suppression of the events, I'm not sure if there was any loss of life from the attack?"
"I wouldn't know… when I'm it… " Bruce sighed, not having the strength to finish the sentence and allowing his hands to pull at his hair nervously. Betty slid to the stool next to him, grabbing his hand and giving it a tight squeeze. A small smile appeared on his face, the tension drained like steam in a sauna. "When I'm the Hulk, it's like a drunk blackout. I can't recall anything I do like that when I wake up."
"And you… you both say that the General never informed you two on the true nature of the project that you were working on," The reporter made circles in the air with his hands, as if it somehow illustrated his point. "How dangerous was this? Ignoring the illegal nature of super solider projects in the current world climate."
"Very dangerous," Betty found herself interjecting. While this was mainly an interview with Bruce and Doyle, the younger man thought that adding her own input to it would be good for adding legitimacy. "Without knowing the results other groups were aiming for with the project we didn't have a hope with making any adjustments."
"And given that this all involved radiation that was potentially lethal."
It was obvious to Betty that Doyle wasn't ignorant of science. He was informed enough that he knew some of the questions that needed to be asked. But not enough to know what exact terms always meant, anything more complicated than a College Freshmen's level of understanding was above him. But only meant that Bruce and she needed to coach him a little just before starting the interview.
Before there was another question coming out of the Irishman's mouth, Sterns burst into the room, his eyes wide in excitement.
"It's ready!" he yelled, running back into the lab with the same energy that one would expect from a child Christmas morning. They paused the interview for the moment, they'd already gotten a few crimes that her father had committed out of the way first thing, just in case the General's forces get here sooner than they feared.
So they prioritized the cure over the interview.
The three of them moved fast, catching up with the Professor as he ran around the cramped room, as the operating table in the center took up so much space. Pat stood out of the way, in the one empty corner of the room. Betty moved to help Sterns strap Bruce onto the table.
"Now, I do want to remind you, not to get your hopes up too much," Sterns spoke, his hands lifting up a large tube of liquid, the supposed cure. "Even if this works in this instance, there's no way to know if this will be permanent. It could even kill you given the levels of toxicity we're playing with it here. "
"I understand," Bruce replied, his eyes though were still full of so much hope that it almost broke Betty's resolve not to give him constant hugs, just to reassure him. It would be too much, too fast. "Just do it."
The straps were the first thing that they did, fastening them before attaching the needed instruments to the temple of the gamma-powered superhuman's forehead. Betty glanced back to Doyle, noting his intense gaze towards Bruce. It reminded her of her father's stare, it wasn't hostile but it had the same style of prepared readiness that one would expect from someone that had been trained to anticipate danger at any moment.
It was a bizarre contrast from the eccentric and passionate reporter that she'd been speaking to. Almost like the man had a switch in his head that turned him from naive and kind of goofy, to serious at a moment's notice.
"Now, this might sting."
As Sterns said this, he pushed a button down on the console nearby, initiating the first phase of the process. This involved inducing an episode, meaning turning Bruce into the Hulk. In a slow, painful-looking process compared to the more rapid transformation that they'd usually come to. Bones snapped up, muscles expanded as his skull did the same. His skin gradually started to change in tone, going from a normal, if slightly tanned, caucasian to bright emerald green.
Sadly the restraints were designed for a normal man, they started to bulge and snap as Banner transformed, the operating table compressing slightly under the increased weight of the man as the process continued.
Sterns went to start the next phase, applying the cure, but it was too soon.
"No!" Betty found herself yelling, stopping Sterns in his tracks. "There's more."
Out of the corner of her eye, Betty could barely make out Doyle stepping ever closer to the table, his hands coming out of his pocket and rising till they were just above his waist. As if he was getting ready to stop the Hulk if he went on a rampage. Obviously, the reporter hadn't researched Bruce to the fine detail that he wanted people to believe.
When the Hulk started to snap his remaining restraints, Betty was ready, practically leaping on top of the emerging emerald giant. Keeping her voice low, she spoke soothing words that seemed to calm the Hulk, if only briefly.
"Sterns!" Betty yelled once more, keeping her eyes staring into the Hulk's own. "Do it now!"
While that little event happened, Betty didn't see Doyle's head snap in the opposite direction. His face snarling and his ears metaphorically pricking up. Before the reporter yelled out.
"We've got company!"
Betty nearly glanced back to the reporter but instead continued to look down below, as the green face of the Hulk started to sink, his skin returning to the normal color of a man belonging to his race. It wouldn't matter if her father brought the entire armed forces in here, not if Bruce was cured. She could hear the door in the other room be kicked in, so hard in fact that the wood and glass that were part of it shattered as it hit the opposite wall. Doyle moved fast, charging into there with nary a concern on his face, the door closing shut on the way behind him.
The resulting gunshots told Betty all she needed to know… that was till there was even more gunfire.
Being the daughter of a general, Betty recognized the caliber of the gun, if not the exact model. It was a standard-issue 9mn pistol. Letting her count the number of shots that were fired so she could tell when it was going to run out. Of course, she knew it only takes a second to replace the magazine. Which gave them some chance, given Bruce was now knocked out and no longer the Hulk beneath her body. As fast as the woman could, she stepped down from Bruce's body, who was still squirming beneath the few bindings that remained.
It was at the end of this process when Doyle was thrown back through the lab door, smashing onto the ground and sliding them across the surface till he reached the leg of the table. A man came out, Betty recognizing him as the man from before, the one that had tried to take the Hulk on his lonesome.
It was a surprise that the man was on his feet and not in a hospital bed.
"No," he whispered, his face curling up into a fierce snarl as his eyes caught the sight of Bruce on the operating table. "No! You won't rob me of a rematch!" The Soldier threw himself forward, coming at Bruce with his combat knife held out.
But just as he was within a single inch, suddenly Doyle stood up, pulling the soldier up into the air by the ankle and slamming him down into the floor with so much force that blood splattered into the air. Bruce came to his senses at this moment, the jerk of movements drawing Betty's eyes away from the amazing scene that had just transpired. This meant that she missed the sight that both Bruce and Sterns saw… bullets popping out of Doyle's head and hitting the floor with only the lightest of pings.
"Incredible!" Sterns yelled,
"We don't have much time," Doyle spoke, spitting out a wad of blood onto the still form of the soldier. "Sterns with me, Banner and Ross need to leave now," Nearly slipping on the bloody floor, the reporter threw a heavy overcoat towards Bruce. it was bigger than the scientist, hopefully, would disguise the ripped pants and lack of top. "The rest could get here in any second."
Silently, Betty helped Bruce to his feet, shoving his arms into the coat with little force before letting him lean his weight onto her shoulders for support. It wasn't long before they were making their way out of the room. Betty turned around to thank the reporter… only to find something odd. Doyle was trying to swallow his recorder, the device not properly fitting in his mouth. At least, not with the plastic bag he had wrapped around it, the air in there bubbling up and stopping it from going past his front teeth.
Betty decided that she didn't need to thank him yet.
"You'd think that someone like him would've heard of USB Drives at this stage," she couldn't help but wonder out loud.
(General Thaddeus Ross)
"Blonsky!" Ross screamed over the radio, the other man clearly being heard on the other side throwing his own radio off his ear and to the ground. It was only the cameras they had looking at the building that allowed him to see the former royal marine sprinting towards the building moving at a far faster rate than any man had any right to.
"That's our taxes running off," One of the technicians muttered, his voice going unnoticed by the General as frustration caused the man to growl loudly.
With that same sort of energy, Ross grabbed his own pistol, yelling out for their entire forces to move in now. While it wasn't how he wanted, the General knew that thanks to Blonsky going off like this, it was the time to act now. Before Banner had a chance to transform into the Hulk again.
There was a clinical precision to the movements of the General as he made his way towards the building. Usually, he wouldn't put himself so close to the frontlines, not because the man wasn't willing to take the same risk as his men, but because he knew with his advanced age, his place was no longer on the frontlines. Ross's experience in leading men now mattered more than his experience in killing men.
But when it was his daughter at risk, Ross was willing to risk death.
It only took a minute and a half to reach the lab of Dr. Sterns, where it had taken Blonsky twenty seconds. The door had been broken, barely hanging onto the frame by a single hinge on top. They surrounded the entry into a side room, tranquilizers at the ready for Banner. Ross took note that Blonsky was nowhere to be seen, even though there was a clear sign of a struggle, given the number of bullet holes the General could make out around the room. But it was then that his eyes caught the trail of blood that lead to the side room.
With a hard kick, they all went into the room…
"Hello, there," Dr. Sterns said in response to this, his expression a nervous smile, while a twenty-something brunette man sat on a nearby operating table, his own face staring down at the unconscious Blonsky beneath his feet.
"Are you after this man, sir?" The unidentified male asked, pointing down at Blonsky, his face just as nervous as Sterns's. "Because if you're not, I swear, this isn't what it looks like."
"And what does it look like?"
The youngest man among the group glanced around the room, an act that Ross couldn't help mirroring, taking in their surroundings with a far more analytical eye than he would usually use. There were shards of broken glass all over the place, chemicals were dripping from shelves. There were even large machines, with equipment that reminded the General of electrical shock therapy.
"Doesn't this look like an evil lab?" The young man shrugged, bringing Ross's attention back to him. From the rather peeved expression on the doctor's face, it seemed this insulted Sterns's feelings.
"We don't have time for this, where is Banner?" Ross held his pistol right between the smart mouth's eyes, something that caused him to visibly flinch. "I don't want this to get messy, son."
"Banner?" he responded, his eyes shifting towards Sterns as if asking him a question. "No idea who that is."
"Mr. Green!" Ross screamed, his face heating up from rage. "Where is Mr. Green."
"But… I am Mr.Green."
(Doctor Sterns)
Sterns felt that he was lucky to be placed in interrogation with Doyle. This was likely done because the military was short on time, but it also spoke to him of the sheer illegality of the events going on here. General Ross didn't want this to get out. Just like Doyle had expected. Even down to how they were handcuffed to the table. Honestly, any plan that involved getting handcuffed just made Sterns nervous.
"Tell me, how do a college professor and a reporter meet?" It was the General doing the job, interrogating the two of them with a harsh glare. The room they were in was another back room in the college, a storage room if the doctor's memory wasn't failing him.
With a single light source set up in the room, no doubt some part of a mental trick that they use to mess with people.
"W-well," Doyle started, stuttered and gasping his hands together with a nervous energy that Sterns had only seen from freshmen or seniors after cramming all their studies into a single night for a test the following morning. It was an impressive act. "I was r-researching things for an s-story. An elderly man… "
His fingers turned pale as he trailed off, they were intertwining and rubbing against each other to cause this effect. Doyle even let his line of sight fall to the floor, his eyes now staring at his shoelaces as they blinked rapidly.
"... well," he eventually picked up, seemingly gaining confidence as he started to speak. "He died from gamma radiation, something that I was told he picked up from drinking soda. Now, I wanted to write an article on this, weaving this into one on the dangers of gamma overall. So I looked for someone online. Found some forums, spoke to a few people and Mr. Blue here came up."
Sterns noted that it was a good idea, use his online alias like this. Dangerous, because it brought attention back to him, which was something Doyle said would be bad in this situation. But it did do a decent job in making the alias sound more innocent than his involvement with Banner implied... legally that is.
"That's convenient," Ross replied, "Sterns this-"
Doyle did something odd, something that was out of the character that he seemed to like playing. He openly scoffed, even rolling his eyes into the air.
"Something funny, Doyle?" Ross asked, the door behind him, opening up to reveal a female soldier, dressed in green camo walking in to sit beside the General. Sterns could barely make out the badge stretched on saying, Major Kathleen Sparr.
"Why is it convenient?" Doyle spoke, his grin sharp, his finger now pointing at the center of the table they'd been cuffed to. There was a odd amount of anger there, for what was an otherwise innocent enough phase. "Is it convenient that without any justification that I've been confined, not for anything resembling wrongdoing… but because you found a generic ass alias online? That's not convenient, that's inconvenient… and a waste of time."
"How'd you know that we found you by that alias?" Major Sparr asked, a single brow raised as if she'd caught him out.
Doyle wriggled a finger at the general, suddenly being far too cheeky for his own good. It also wasn't part of the plan, they were meant to act scared and feeble.
"The General here, he opened with it."
Doyle seemed to take pleasure in changing his mannerisms every few seconds. One stage he'd be a nervous wreck, next he'd be an expressionless face, and now he was a smug ass. Sterns wasn't sure if this trick would put the two off their game. But he hoped.
The Major sighed, glaring slightly at her superior, but only from the corner of her eyes. Meaning that Ross didn't spot it. It was something that gave Sterns a small amount of hope that the General wasn't just going to lock him away in a cage somewhere. Not if there were some people working for him that would squeal on him at any rate.
"So… you two are saying that it's a coincidence?" Ross asked. "That the two of you are here, where we have images of a wanted fugitive entering the building then?"
Doyle glanced towards Sterns, and for a second the older man was taken back by the raw smugness that the reporter started to show. Because the man leaned back into his seat and stared Ross right into the eye and said;
"Yup."
Ross slammed his hands onto the table, causing Sterns to jerk back in fright, the general snarling at the pair before roaring out, causing two reactions. The first came from Sterns once more, the man letting a whimper out as he tried to cower away from the military man. And the other was Doyle, nonchalantly whistling as he placed his hands into his pockets.
"Do you think this is a game?!" The General continued to roar, his face growing ever redder, even as he grabbed the reporter's collar and lifted him up, his nose just an inch away from the other man's. "You've both committed treason against the United States, that's an executable offense."
Doyle scoffed once more.
"Please, we wouldn't be held in a random room in Greyburn College if you could pin something like that on us."
Sterns gulped, the noise loud in the oppressive silence. Doyle was walking a thin line, it wouldn't be good if the General decided to Blackbook kill them in this room, maybe he'd even pin it on Banner.
"You seem sure of yourself," Ross returned, letting go of Doyle's shirt, something that allowed the reporter to smooth out the creases caused by the interaction. "You think yourself invincible."
There was an unsaid threat left lingering in the air, something that Doyle ignored, instead he focused his attention on the major.
"Tell me, has Ross here committed a lot of illegal activities at late? Seems like the type when he's doing plenty of black ops stuff this… really he shouldn't be allowed to," Doyle shrugged as he sat back down, the woman staring at him as blankly as she could, though Sterns could see how she bit the inside of her mouth to keep herself from talking. "Especially given his failure rate at… well, life."
"You seem to know a lot about me," Ross held up a hand, stopping Major Sparr from speaking out. "Where did you get your information from? Who's your source?"
"You are."
There was a beat of silence, one where the Major couldn't help the smile that lit her face up, while the General couldn't help when another growl passed through his lips. The man had made that noise so much now that Sterns couldn't help but wonder if the General hadn't had some work done on himself.
"What?" It was a flat response, well as flat as one could make it at least when coming off a growl.
"Every time I open my mouth, you give me just a little more information," The reporter began to explain. "Every question you ask doesn't just tell me a little bit more about this whole incident, it tells me more about you."
"I doubt it," Was the General's only response. "More likely you're just taking random shots in the dark."
"What about this, you came here because of an alias getting triggered," Doyle pointed at Sterns but never stopped staring at Ross. "This alias belongs to a fugitive, one that you've been tracking for some time if your demeanor is to be trusted."
"Does this have a point? You're just repeating what I've told you back to me."
"You're right, but it's also why I know you're such a failure."
Ross snarled, his fist tightening on the table, an event that seemed to go by unnoticed by the reporter, who went on to explain the failure further.
"You've been chasing this one man, whoever it is doesn't matter, but what… he's just always out of your grasp. The entire might of the US military behind this operation and you can't catch a guy that spent his life behind a desk? You ever think that you're just a dumb jock preten-"
The punch that happened next took Sterns by surprise, causing the man to yelp and nearly fall off his chair, his fear rising with each passing second Doyle didn't respond to this. Instead, he just rotated his head lazily around.
"You sure that you're a general?" Doyle asked, his chin lazing on the palm of his right hand, the links of his cuffs staining enough that Sterns felt the need to kick the other man under the desk to stop him from snapping the thing into pieces. "Seems more like a hotheaded ensign."
"Watch your mouth, punk! I was serving this country before you were a glint in your father's eye," Ross said, rubbing his bruised knuckles while glaring at the unresponsive form of Doyle, who only took in a deep breath and kept his eyes closed.
"I'm pretty sure that my Dad was older than you."
"You might think I can't just kill you and throw you in some hole but-"
The door to the room was knocked on, interrupting Ross from making his threat and causing the door to shake as if the person on that side were running from the hounds of hell. Stern could see Doyle open his left eye only slightly before a wide tooth-filled grin took over his face.
"I said that I was not to be disturb-"
"General Ross," A blonde woman, dressed in a suit and wearing a pair of dark sunglasses entered the room. There was a small but polite smile on her lips. "I'm agent Bobbi Morse, of SHIELD, I'd ask that you'd release both Mr. Doyle and Dr. Sterns."
"On what grounds? We have jurisdiction on this matter."
It was the Major that brought this up, due to Ross not even bothering to speak. Instead, he continued to stare right into Doyle's grinning visage, as if seeing a challenge in the younger man's eyes that the General couldn't stand to see unbroken.
"Fortunately, you don't," Agent Morse nodded, handing the Major a white sheet of paper, Sterns couldn't make out most of what was on the sheet, just the US and SHIELD crests that were marked on the corners. "The second that you used SHIELD assets without informing my agency this became a SHIELD matter. So once more, I'd ask that you release the two into my custody."
There was a tense few seconds of silence, one punctuated with Ross sending each and every person in the room a powerful glare. Major Sparr placed a hand on the General's arms, there was a loud aggressive sight that came from Ross's lips after that, before he reached into his pocket and threw a pair of keys down onto the table.
"Oh, I don't need that," Doyle said, raising his hands with an evil grin on his face. With a cling, the cuffs fell to the table, not broken but having already been unlocked. "See I nicked the key off you when you ruffled my collar and even put the damn thing back in before you noticed."
Ross's mouth dropped open as Doyle picked up the key and released Sterns. The two of them walked after the Agent of SHIELD, an agency that Sterns hadn't heard of before now. That was something that set him on edge, given Doyle's behavior overall during this. Like he'd expected it. Had Sterns walked in from one government operation run by a General obsessing with putting away his daughter's boyfriend, to one where a man had handed him over to a shadowy spy organization?
"That was fun," Sterns said, as they stepped into the female's car. The two of them turned to him, Doyle having let out a massive sigh of relief, while Morse turned to face the doctor. "Can my cells be away from his, he kind of scares me?"
(Emil Blonsky)
He woke up his head… feeling fine. One would think that having it smashed against the floor of a lab that the former marine would awake with his head-splitting, but that didn't seem to be the case. Instead, he woke up with his nose blocked, and from what he could tell…
… the blockage was merely dried blood that had crusted around the top of his nostrils.
Blonsky stood up fast, ignoring how heavy his head felt or how his vision swarm. Instead, he blew hard out his nose, holding one side close so the most force could be concentrated through one nostril. A blob of blood ejected out of his nose and splattered against the floor.A medic took notice of the man now standing, the former marine having been taken to the command bus to get treatment for his injuries.
"Blonsky, you-" Before the unnamed man could finish his sentence, Blonsky took the tray from his bed and smacked him in the head with enough force that it caused the man to be imprinted in the metal. With a thud, the medic fell down.
"Get out of way," Blonsky could feel his body sweat, could feel parts of his arms twitch and bulge in time with the beat of his heartbeat. There was a threat, he could feel one nearby, Blonsky knew he needed to deal with it.
Deal with all the threats.
But he couldn't do that, do it like he was now.
He needed more power… but the biggest issue was Blonsky wasn't sure where he'd get more power. It was unlikely that Ross would be willing to let him have another injection of the serum, Blonsky could tell from the sound of his voice, from the way that his body sweated and tensed. The General would only think of him as a junky.
But it was more than that, it was the thrill of the fight. The raw challenge before him.
It was then that Blonsky recalled just how he ended up in this bed, the man that he shot, the man that got up from that like it was nothing. A realization churned through his mind.
"Another one," Emil smiled, pulling off his military gear as he began to get dressed into civies. "If I get him, I get more."
It was a simple enough concept to grasp, someone with that level of physical prowess couldn't have been a normal human. The man must have been a super soldier just like him. It would make sense that Banner would try and meet with a fellow like that, someone that could help him keep under control while trying out the cure.
But now Blonsky needed to find out where this new man was, who he was, and how he got his amazing powers. Then once he had the secret and gained the power for himself, the former marine would finally get the fight he needed; the fight he desperately deserved. Oh, how Blonsky burned to be tested, how he burned to force himself to higher levels of power, all the while showcasing how his superior experience and skills would allow him to overwhelm those with a slight power advantage.
It was as he put on his t-shirt that Blonsky felt his vertebrae cut through the thin material of the shirt, ripping further as it came down to his waistline. Growling softly, Blonsky grabbed a jacket instead, deciding that his enhancements would more than makeup for being a bit chilly. Blonsky threw two such shirts over his own, before grabbing a tacky jean jacket nearby and buttoning it up as tight as the clothing could be. It was the cap that he grabbed on his way out that didn't fit him at all, it only hung loosely around the top of his head.
Slowly, Emil made his way out, managing to get around the few patrols Ross had left nearby with the use of both his superior stealth training and his newly received prowess letting him move in ways and with such speed that no one would think that a person had just passed them. Soon, the former marine managed to disappear into the night, into the city crowds. Ross wouldn't realize till later that his new pet project had gone AWOL. Something that wouldn't help with the General's mood when he saw the evening edition of the New York Bulletin.
Rage seemed to be the theme of the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project.
(Pat Doyle)
This was not how I thought my morning would go. It was meant to be a simple in and out before anything really happened. Then reveal to the world just what kind of man we were dealing with General Ross, ruin that son of a bitch's career and even make my own career seem all that brighter. What I hadn't expected was puking my guts out in the back of a secret agent's black sedan to get the recorder I shallower to hid it from General Rose earlier.
"I mean it was insane," With my head down between my legs and my mouth open into a plastic bag, I couldn't see Sterns as he said that, but I could hear him moan on about it from his seat beside the driver of this little vehicle. "We had a plan and he didn't even stick with it. Doyle's there provoking the man. Given what both Banner and Dr. Ross were saying about the General, I'm surprised that we weren't killed and put into an unmarked grave."
"Hey," I groaned, a plastic bag having passed painfully through my mouth at last. Meaning, I could finally stop inducing vomiting to get the damn thing, "Ross isn't capable of killing me… you on the other hand… "
"How is that meant to be reassuring!" Sterns yelled, his face red and his body hopping up and down on his seat. I laughed, winking at the man as he turned around to face me. I noticed that Morse was grinning in the rearview mirror, probably finding the byplay between us funny as she drove us to…
"Where are we going?"
Sterns had another fit of yelling at this, I wasn't sure exactly what he was saying probably something about gambling and lives? Not sure, I wasn't really listening to the man at this stage; instead, I waited for the SHIELD Agent to actually reveal something to me.
"I'm taking Sterns to a safe house for a week," Morse spoke, her eyes clearly on the road before us. "Then after that… Fury has an offer for you doctor." Sterns didn't say anything to this; in fact, I couldn't tell if he was excited about the idea or if he was still angry that I plan on the anger game with Ross.
"And I?"
"You?" she responded, her left brow quirking up and her lips gave me a sweet smile. "You get to go home, write that story that the director seemed to have led you to."
There was something odd about the situation. Something that I couldn't put my finger on. Maybe it was the way that Fury seemed to want Ross taken out of the picture, at least in terms of influence. Maybe it was the ease that he'd given me information. I'd known from the beginning that he was using me, but when I've been given such a juicy target to take down. How could I've resisted taking a bite out of it?
What I didn't know was… what had Ross done to piss off Fury?
The Director of SHEILD wasn't the kind of man to shy away from doing the same deeds that Ross was about to get hung out to dry for. If anything I knew about Fury from the Ultimate Marvel line applied here, and given his appearance, it seemed likely, then I couldn't let him know that I suspected that he knew that I knew that he was using me. Let him think he was one step ahead of me.
I was fast enough for that not to matter.
"So what's in the bag?" She asked, glancing at the bag of sick that I held in my hand. This was something that I wish she hadn't done because if she hadn't mentioned it I would've been able to ignore the horrid smell of the puke bag in my hand. "I mean, I know it's a recorder but what did you record?"
I glanced at the mirror, her eyes meeting mine for a few seconds while the two of us gauged the other. There was a moment where I became worried that she was going to crash due to staring at me for far too long.
"I'm calling it the Banner/Ross Interview: The Truth of a Patriot."
To her credit, the woman didn't flinch, nor did she grin at this news. Instead, Morse wore a carefully crafted bland expression that betrayed nothing of her feelings on the matter, neither positive nor negative.
"That's a big story," Morse replied, her eyes returning to the world in front of the car while her hands tightened around the steering wheel. From his spot beside the woman, Sterns stared at me mouthing words that I didn't quite get. "Your second in two days, you certainly don't wait for the ink to dry, do you?"
"The truth doesn't wait for anyone, Agent," I replied, leaning back and closing my eyes. There was only one issue with the last two days of events as far as I was concerned… I hadn't let myself sleep at all. I was too busy researching things through the night, too busy connecting the dots together so I could produce a story that Ellison would accept, with evidence and dates, with the tape I had now, that meant I had more than conjecture. "You gotta grab it and push it to the spotlight. So all the world will know and no one can deny."
But even the current story would be hard for the man to accept. There was a lot of flak that the paper could get from me bad-mouthing someone as celebrated for his long time serving the country. Even if he had been a major, talking about one of American's patriots like this would get push back from both sides of the media.
Most left-leaning and right-leaning media companies didn't like people calling on the military like I wanted to do.
But I was sure I could wear the man down to publish the story. It was just too big of a story for him to ignore, it was bigger than the Ock Story, if only because of how high-ranking Ross is, how much influence, and how many lives and resources he'd wasted hunting down an otherwise innocent man.
My eyes closed for what only felt like a second, but as I knew from how the sounds of the world outside the car passed us by that it was for longer than that. I'd fallen half-asleep, it was sort of embarrassing but I've learned from a long childhood with a lisp that there were far worse things.
"This is your stop," Morse spoke, her voice softly waking me from my sleep. It seemed that I'd been asleep for around an hour if we'd gotten to the Bulletin in such a short time, though I'd say given how traffic usually is, it could've been two hours.
Before I could open my mouth, my ears perked up, the sound of an engine roaring filling them. It was too late for me to warn anyone about this. The crash that came flipped the car over as the door next to me was hit with so much force that I felt it.
The world swarm around, the lights blending together in a soup that I could only describe as nauseating. Shutting my eyes tight in an attempt to combat this feeling, the next thing that I could make out was the sound of someone breaking apart metal above me. It was then that I could feel a hand, cold, clammy, and sweating like a pig, pick me up by the collar.
I was pulled up and out of the car, letting me feel the blood pouring out of my forehead, a cut split open there.
"I've got you now, punk," A man spoke, his voice unfamiliar but the one thing that I could make out was the pain the speaker was obviously in, it was strained and sounded out of breath as if the man couldn't breathe right. To my inexperienced ear, it sounded like a person who was jonesing for a fix, an addict that was looking for just one more dose of their fave.
Have I been taken out by a druggie?
"Tell me," he said, pulling my eyes open with two of his fingers. This revealed that the attacker was Ross's pet super-soldier. Emil Blonsky, something that Fury had warned me about. "Where did you get your juice from? Russians? No, maybe some kind of Irish attempt to replicate Captain America?"
Huh, was hoping that I hit him hard enough that he wouldn't remember that I had super strength.
Before I could even try to speak, his hands wrapped around my throat, squeezing tightly and hard. Blocking my airflow and causing me to gasp more out of shock than pain but it at least worked to block my airflow, but not to cause me pain. Something that confused me… but not something that I had time to ponder on.
Acting without much thought, I punched him in the chest, causing the soldier to be flung back into his car, smashing the windshield with so much force that it was shattered into tiny pieces, the shards digging into his skin and his blood pouring out onto the front seats of the vehicle. I wiped my own blood from my face, something that seemed to combine with my wounds sealing to return my sight to normal. My heart rate slowed back down to normal, my head stopped arching and I took a deep breath, letting oxygen fill my lungs.
I turned around, moving to the wreck of Morse's car with steady but slow steps.
"Hey, you guys ok!"
"Yeah!" Morse was the one to reply, her face popping out of the open side window before she dragged herself out of the car, her hand coming down to pull Sterns out as well. "I'm fine, but the doctor should go to a hospital, he's is pretty cut up."
"That-" Before I could finish the sentence, I heard a gun cock, my body spinning around so fast that the coming bullet was moving in slow motion, allowing me to try something that I'd always wanted to try.
"Yoink!"
Much to the surprise of the already healed and upright Blonsky, I dropped the bullet of his 9mn pistol to the ground, letting him see the near-perfect condition projectile roll across the asphalt. I could make out the excitement of a forming crowd along the sidewalks, from the cars that had stopped in the road, trying to not run into either the wreckage or me and Emil.
"I don't believe it?" he whispered, looking to his gun, before firing off every round left in the clip. Twelve rounds were fired in rapid succession, each one accompanied by a wave of my hand, letting him see how each seemly disappeared before I let them all drop into a single pile of bullets.
"Believe it!" I held up a fist in front of my face, watching him throw the gun to the ground before running over to me with a yell.
I hadn't expected him to be so fast, but I still weaved around his kicks, his punches, and even a headbutt with ease that only seemed to anger the man further. But sadly for what I was now hoping would be an easy ride, my punch was ducked, his body rolled back so when his legs kicked out, I'd flip over him. Thankfully, the ground and I had come to an agreement with each other, so instead of crashing into it, I floated a few inches above the ground and stamped out my momentum, then touched down on the ground and flipped back to my feet.
"So do-" Instantly, I was knocked back, an explosion ranging in my ears. This time, there was no pain, I was only knocked onto my back, my coat being ripped apart by the mix of heat and motion of sliding along the asphalt.
I looked up to find Blonsky holding a grenade launcher, the barrel of the gun smoking at me while he smirked, his eyes almost bulging out of his sockets with excitement. Before he could get off another grenade into my face, a few rounds were fired into his weapon.
It was Agent Morse, her sidearm aimed perfectly, and so it took only two rounds hitting the chambers before the whole thing exploded in Blonsky's hands, red chunks and smoke flying everywhere around us.
When it finally cleared… Blonsky was somehow still alive, though groaning from his position on the ground, his limbs were wrecked messes that I couldn't even have begun to describe.
Interlude 1
- Location
- Ireland
"Well ain't this a mess," Fury's voice echoed out of her phone and into her ear, the tone one of mildly contained disappointment. Bobby was briefly annoyed, it wasn't like this was the typical setup that SHIELD Agents were used to dealing with. People like Blonsky didn't grow on trees, so there wasn't really anyone with the experience needed to deal with them.
"Sir, I can exp-"
"I don't blame you agent, Blonsky going off the deep end like that wasn't exactly on the itinerary."
"Still his physical prowess was far beyond what I was told Ross's project had ever reached," Agent Morse added, her voice still low. "I wouldn't mind being able to move like that in my late 40s."
Fury's sudden chuckle brought her away from the potential daydreams of Captain America-scale feats.
"I wouldn't try it if I were you," The Director warned. "Blonsky was cleared by SHIELD before this, we were thinking of bringing him on to train students in the academy. The serum that Ross used on him… it's made him far too unstable."
"Sterns actually has some ideas about that, sir," Morse responded. "He thinks that some of the research that he's done on Banner could be used to replicate Blonsky's results without those… berserk issues."
"We're going to leave that up to the Eggheads in the labs to discuss for now," The man replied, his bland tone hiding the excitement that he truly felt for the idea. "For now, just keep the man from creating a Hulk dog, We don't need another disaster in New York City."
Suddenly the man shifted gears in the conversation, his tone taking on the far more professional-quality he known for.
"What's your reading on the kid?"
That was the main reason behind letting Doyle find out about Banner and Ross's current situation after all. To see what he'd do, while at the same time putting the checks that SHIELD thought that they could use against him if he turned out to be dangerous in more than just his potential for destruction.
"Doyle's pretending that he's not bothered by being revealed. But it's obvious that he'd prefer if the attention wasn't on him, So we don't have to worry that he's another Stark."
"But he also still published the article on Ross," Fury added. "It was pushed back to page 2, but it will ruin the man. No amount of favors is going to get him out of this hole. That's not the most casual of responses toward a man that he didn't know."
Fury left it unsaid that the page 1 story was about Doyle himself, it hadn't revealed much other than how he had woken up with these powers one day and how he was disinterested in abusing them. Denying the alien angle that
"He doesn't like bullies." She responded simply before adding her own feelings on the matter. "I don't blame him, neither do I."
The two of them remained silent, there was a rush of movement coming from the streets around Bobbi, the woman staying alert all throughout the conversation for any sign of danger, just as she was trained for.
"Still his new public life will be more hectic for our would-vigilante, you think the kid's up for it?"
"I don't think he'll like it but thanks to us, his other secrets have been covered up. So he only has to worry that people know all about his powers and not… his mysterious arrival to our little neck of the woods."
"I'll notify the Council that I've gotten a candidate for the Avengers program all lined up. I had been worried after Stark, that I wouldn't be able to get a single man cleared for the duty."
"Would they even let an Alien join?" The Agent questioned, using the commonly held theory among those Agents that knew about Doyle's existence since before his true reveal to the world. The World Security Council members currently on the board weren't the most accepting of outside factors.
"Who says that I'll tell them," In response to Fury's words Morse quietly laughed. "Now, I'll be out of contact for the next few days. Something's come up that needs my personal attention. If you need any back up or further orders then contract Coulson, he's returning from New Mexico."
With that, the call ended leaving the Agent to return to her safe house where Dr. Sterns was still complaining about his current lack of a lab, something about how the young Doyle's durability had sparked a remarkable idea.
Bobbi didn't really care about any of that, she just didn't want Sterns to go out and get himself noticed by the wrong sorts. That would just be what she needs, the man to get himself picked up by some criminal organization in an attempt to create more Hulks, or at least Hulk rats, which he had apparently created briefly, after having transformed into a green monster once, they returned to their forms before dying.
Sterns was the picture of a mad scientist, so Morse was only too happy that SHIELD had gotten their hands on him before someone like Ross had. The world didn't need an army of Hulks.
(Ben Urich)
It wasn't the paper title that he had expected the day before, proclaiming that the Bulletin had a super-powered reporter working for them. Since there weren't any cases of Doyle using his powers, that could be proved to him, so the kid's secret dock work that started his vigilante remained a secret. So it wasn't a complete disaster, just a pain in the ass.
"Doris," he called out, stepping into his apartment with a light step. "Honey, I'm home."
"She ain't here, gone out to the shop!" Pat's Irish accent was on full display as Ben rounded the corner and entered the kitchen. "Not sure what Doris needed but maybe she just wanted some air?"
Mrs. Urich was the type of person that loved to take long walks out on the New York streets, the kind of person that would pop the window of a car open so she'd get the wind blowing in her hair no matter the weather, barring the worst that New York had to offer. Luckily for them, the area that they lived in was one of the calmer ones, though with the number of paparazzi hanging about in the neighborhood it was oddly even safer than before.
Not many people wanted to try mugging someone or holding up while they could get caught on some camera.
"Right," Ben sighed, picking up the kettle from one of the worktops and pouring water from the tap into it. It wasn't long before he was sitting down at the table.
The two fell into a comfortable silence until a thought crossed Ben's mind.
"So you got any plans today?" The man smirked. "Hanging out with that young… redhead friend of yours?"
Pat simply shook his head, his eyes roaming around the room as if there were other people that could be listening in on their conversation. For a second Ben actually became worried about that possibility, if the young man with the power to see through walls appeared to be worried then… wouldn't it be safe to assume that there could be invisible people or bugs in the apartment?
Soon that worry disappeared as Pat leaned forward in his chair and spoke.
"Nah, I was thinking of checking on Doctor Octavius's arraignment today," Doyle responded instead, scratching his chin as he started to eat a ham sandwich.
"Expecting trouble?" Urich found himself amused at the level of threat that the young boy seemed to think that now unarmed woman still had. From what he knew about the justice system, with that woman's level of skills, Octavius wouldn't be allowed even a plastic fork.
Never mind the materials she'd need to break out.
"Let's put it this way," The younger man waved his arm out in a circular motion in front of Ben's face as if he was describing the action of a madwoman by hand signs. "I'm not a hundred percent sure about this… but from what I know, her experiment could've ended all life on this Earth."
Ben was lucky that there was a table so close to his hand, otherwise, he'd be down one less cup. The very idea that his young friend proposed was insane… but not any more insane than a young man from another universe with extraordinary powers showing up one day and saving his life to top that off.
"How did you figure that out?" Ben's curious mind couldn't draw up the will to stop himself from asking the question.
"It's simple physics, the Bleed between universes isn't too dissimilar to the void of space," he started to explain, his hands shoving the sandwich into his mouth and devouring it within a second. "The lack of anything else means once there's a hole that connects normal space with the Bleed… well, we're a balloon and she wanted to poke a hole in it."
"So… like a black hole?"
"I think so," Doyle shrugged. "To tell the truth, her calculation and theories are more than a little bit more advanced than I can understand."
It was an admission that caused Pat to flinch slightly as if it was painful to admit or more likely, the science involved in the task was so confusing that he found it annoying. With Doyle, either one could be true. By the time Doris came back from the store, Doyle was already out the door and off to the arraignment. Ben's mind bounced to Doyle's newfound fame at this point, wondering how the kid would grow from being forced to reveal himself to the world.
Urich was just glad that the kid wasn't going to go around in that costume he'd made. It was more than a bit embarrassing.
(Dr. Olivia Octavius)
She took a deep breath, letting the musty air of the holding cell fill her nostrils. It was a wet place, Olivia could smell the mold that was growing on the ceiling, a health risk someone of her mind would've never allowed if they'd had been any choice.
"Ah, is the big bad, Doc Ock scared that her arraignment has arrived?"
Her cellmate started to tease, some small-time moron that had been caught shoplifting a few days before. With all the ruckus that New York had been going through in this past week, it wasn't surprising that there were a few Defence Lawyers ready to represent her, so Olivia had gotten to know her cellmate, Anne, very well.
A grade F moron, if there ever was one.
"So my eyes are closed and you think that I'm scared?" Olivia was annoyed, the other woman hadn't shut her mouth in hours. "Next you'll think snores are a sign that I'm in pain."
"You making fun of me, Doc?" The Scientist could hear the bed above her squeak as Anne moved to glare down at her. "Because for a woman without her special arms, you sure do talk smack!"
With that Anne leaped from the top bunk, the loud noise forcing Olivia to open her eyes and give the woman a hard stare.
"If I was making fun of you, I'd make fun of the way your left eye squints more than the right, and how you smell like eggs if they were put into a jar of mayonnaise and left out in the sun too long."
"That's it!" Anne rolled up her sleeves but stopped at the combination of the Doctor's sudden smile and her hand raising up. "Saying sorry won't stop what I'm about to do to your skinny ass!"
"Oh, no I'm not saying sorry. I'm just warning you to take a step to the left… things will be less messy if you do that."
Olivia's left hand was out in the air, pointing Anne towards a section of the cell that wasn't bathed in the sunlight of the window. The small-time criminal didn't even have the time to shrug before something crashed through said window and splattered her remains around the room.
"I did warn you," Olivia sang, getting off of her bed and walking towards the large metal cylinder that had killed the other woman. She wiped the blood from her glasses with the sleeve of her prison uniform. "But it seems that you… are just another person too stupid to recognize my brilliance."
As she came within a foot of the device, it opened up, tentacles springing out of the surface and attaching to her spine in a smooth motion. There were only the smallest flinches that formed on the woman's face as the tentacles started to snap away at the air around her. It was only then that the station's sirens started to wail, signaling the coming guards that were running down the hall at this very second. She turned towards the device quickly, knowing that a single lucky bullet could be the end for her.
"The fools underestimated the power that my advanced science has granted me," she opened a panel, a blinking light awaited her vision, along with a series of buttons that the woman pressed so fast that one would wonder about the possible mistakes she could make.
Olivia had this backup plan in mind the moment that her tests and experiments had reached beyond the theory stage, knowing that the ignorant world would never accept the risk needed to progress. So it was good that she'd sent off the pod before her main plan had failed. A smarter person would've known the scorch marks on the roof of her apartment couldn't have come from the experiment but thankfully for her, neither the SHIELD Agents nor the powerful alien named Doyle realized this.
It was as the guards came into view, their pistols drawn and their voices screaming at her to stand down… that the Doctor finished inputting the commands on her device. The resulting action appeared to be an explosion so big that it took out the guards and left no trace of either the cell or the deadly Doctor Octopus, only a massive hole where they once were.
But miles away, the sound of metal cracking against the pavement of rooftops could be heard ringing out. The Doc was on the loose once again.
"Sir, I can exp-"
"I don't blame you agent, Blonsky going off the deep end like that wasn't exactly on the itinerary."
"Still his physical prowess was far beyond what I was told Ross's project had ever reached," Agent Morse added, her voice still low. "I wouldn't mind being able to move like that in my late 40s."
Fury's sudden chuckle brought her away from the potential daydreams of Captain America-scale feats.
"I wouldn't try it if I were you," The Director warned. "Blonsky was cleared by SHIELD before this, we were thinking of bringing him on to train students in the academy. The serum that Ross used on him… it's made him far too unstable."
"Sterns actually has some ideas about that, sir," Morse responded. "He thinks that some of the research that he's done on Banner could be used to replicate Blonsky's results without those… berserk issues."
"We're going to leave that up to the Eggheads in the labs to discuss for now," The man replied, his bland tone hiding the excitement that he truly felt for the idea. "For now, just keep the man from creating a Hulk dog, We don't need another disaster in New York City."
Suddenly the man shifted gears in the conversation, his tone taking on the far more professional-quality he known for.
"What's your reading on the kid?"
That was the main reason behind letting Doyle find out about Banner and Ross's current situation after all. To see what he'd do, while at the same time putting the checks that SHIELD thought that they could use against him if he turned out to be dangerous in more than just his potential for destruction.
"Doyle's pretending that he's not bothered by being revealed. But it's obvious that he'd prefer if the attention wasn't on him, So we don't have to worry that he's another Stark."
"But he also still published the article on Ross," Fury added. "It was pushed back to page 2, but it will ruin the man. No amount of favors is going to get him out of this hole. That's not the most casual of responses toward a man that he didn't know."
Fury left it unsaid that the page 1 story was about Doyle himself, it hadn't revealed much other than how he had woken up with these powers one day and how he was disinterested in abusing them. Denying the alien angle that
"He doesn't like bullies." She responded simply before adding her own feelings on the matter. "I don't blame him, neither do I."
The two of them remained silent, there was a rush of movement coming from the streets around Bobbi, the woman staying alert all throughout the conversation for any sign of danger, just as she was trained for.
"Still his new public life will be more hectic for our would-vigilante, you think the kid's up for it?"
"I don't think he'll like it but thanks to us, his other secrets have been covered up. So he only has to worry that people know all about his powers and not… his mysterious arrival to our little neck of the woods."
"I'll notify the Council that I've gotten a candidate for the Avengers program all lined up. I had been worried after Stark, that I wouldn't be able to get a single man cleared for the duty."
"Would they even let an Alien join?" The Agent questioned, using the commonly held theory among those Agents that knew about Doyle's existence since before his true reveal to the world. The World Security Council members currently on the board weren't the most accepting of outside factors.
"Who says that I'll tell them," In response to Fury's words Morse quietly laughed. "Now, I'll be out of contact for the next few days. Something's come up that needs my personal attention. If you need any back up or further orders then contract Coulson, he's returning from New Mexico."
With that, the call ended leaving the Agent to return to her safe house where Dr. Sterns was still complaining about his current lack of a lab, something about how the young Doyle's durability had sparked a remarkable idea.
Bobbi didn't really care about any of that, she just didn't want Sterns to go out and get himself noticed by the wrong sorts. That would just be what she needs, the man to get himself picked up by some criminal organization in an attempt to create more Hulks, or at least Hulk rats, which he had apparently created briefly, after having transformed into a green monster once, they returned to their forms before dying.
Sterns was the picture of a mad scientist, so Morse was only too happy that SHIELD had gotten their hands on him before someone like Ross had. The world didn't need an army of Hulks.
(Ben Urich)
It wasn't the paper title that he had expected the day before, proclaiming that the Bulletin had a super-powered reporter working for them. Since there weren't any cases of Doyle using his powers, that could be proved to him, so the kid's secret dock work that started his vigilante remained a secret. So it wasn't a complete disaster, just a pain in the ass.
"Doris," he called out, stepping into his apartment with a light step. "Honey, I'm home."
"She ain't here, gone out to the shop!" Pat's Irish accent was on full display as Ben rounded the corner and entered the kitchen. "Not sure what Doris needed but maybe she just wanted some air?"
Mrs. Urich was the type of person that loved to take long walks out on the New York streets, the kind of person that would pop the window of a car open so she'd get the wind blowing in her hair no matter the weather, barring the worst that New York had to offer. Luckily for them, the area that they lived in was one of the calmer ones, though with the number of paparazzi hanging about in the neighborhood it was oddly even safer than before.
Not many people wanted to try mugging someone or holding up while they could get caught on some camera.
"Right," Ben sighed, picking up the kettle from one of the worktops and pouring water from the tap into it. It wasn't long before he was sitting down at the table.
The two fell into a comfortable silence until a thought crossed Ben's mind.
"So you got any plans today?" The man smirked. "Hanging out with that young… redhead friend of yours?"
Pat simply shook his head, his eyes roaming around the room as if there were other people that could be listening in on their conversation. For a second Ben actually became worried about that possibility, if the young man with the power to see through walls appeared to be worried then… wouldn't it be safe to assume that there could be invisible people or bugs in the apartment?
Soon that worry disappeared as Pat leaned forward in his chair and spoke.
"Nah, I was thinking of checking on Doctor Octavius's arraignment today," Doyle responded instead, scratching his chin as he started to eat a ham sandwich.
"Expecting trouble?" Urich found himself amused at the level of threat that the young boy seemed to think that now unarmed woman still had. From what he knew about the justice system, with that woman's level of skills, Octavius wouldn't be allowed even a plastic fork.
Never mind the materials she'd need to break out.
"Let's put it this way," The younger man waved his arm out in a circular motion in front of Ben's face as if he was describing the action of a madwoman by hand signs. "I'm not a hundred percent sure about this… but from what I know, her experiment could've ended all life on this Earth."
Ben was lucky that there was a table so close to his hand, otherwise, he'd be down one less cup. The very idea that his young friend proposed was insane… but not any more insane than a young man from another universe with extraordinary powers showing up one day and saving his life to top that off.
"How did you figure that out?" Ben's curious mind couldn't draw up the will to stop himself from asking the question.
"It's simple physics, the Bleed between universes isn't too dissimilar to the void of space," he started to explain, his hands shoving the sandwich into his mouth and devouring it within a second. "The lack of anything else means once there's a hole that connects normal space with the Bleed… well, we're a balloon and she wanted to poke a hole in it."
"So… like a black hole?"
"I think so," Doyle shrugged. "To tell the truth, her calculation and theories are more than a little bit more advanced than I can understand."
It was an admission that caused Pat to flinch slightly as if it was painful to admit or more likely, the science involved in the task was so confusing that he found it annoying. With Doyle, either one could be true. By the time Doris came back from the store, Doyle was already out the door and off to the arraignment. Ben's mind bounced to Doyle's newfound fame at this point, wondering how the kid would grow from being forced to reveal himself to the world.
Urich was just glad that the kid wasn't going to go around in that costume he'd made. It was more than a bit embarrassing.
(Dr. Olivia Octavius)
She took a deep breath, letting the musty air of the holding cell fill her nostrils. It was a wet place, Olivia could smell the mold that was growing on the ceiling, a health risk someone of her mind would've never allowed if they'd had been any choice.
"Ah, is the big bad, Doc Ock scared that her arraignment has arrived?"
Her cellmate started to tease, some small-time moron that had been caught shoplifting a few days before. With all the ruckus that New York had been going through in this past week, it wasn't surprising that there were a few Defence Lawyers ready to represent her, so Olivia had gotten to know her cellmate, Anne, very well.
A grade F moron, if there ever was one.
"So my eyes are closed and you think that I'm scared?" Olivia was annoyed, the other woman hadn't shut her mouth in hours. "Next you'll think snores are a sign that I'm in pain."
"You making fun of me, Doc?" The Scientist could hear the bed above her squeak as Anne moved to glare down at her. "Because for a woman without her special arms, you sure do talk smack!"
With that Anne leaped from the top bunk, the loud noise forcing Olivia to open her eyes and give the woman a hard stare.
"If I was making fun of you, I'd make fun of the way your left eye squints more than the right, and how you smell like eggs if they were put into a jar of mayonnaise and left out in the sun too long."
"That's it!" Anne rolled up her sleeves but stopped at the combination of the Doctor's sudden smile and her hand raising up. "Saying sorry won't stop what I'm about to do to your skinny ass!"
"Oh, no I'm not saying sorry. I'm just warning you to take a step to the left… things will be less messy if you do that."
Olivia's left hand was out in the air, pointing Anne towards a section of the cell that wasn't bathed in the sunlight of the window. The small-time criminal didn't even have the time to shrug before something crashed through said window and splattered her remains around the room.
"I did warn you," Olivia sang, getting off of her bed and walking towards the large metal cylinder that had killed the other woman. She wiped the blood from her glasses with the sleeve of her prison uniform. "But it seems that you… are just another person too stupid to recognize my brilliance."
As she came within a foot of the device, it opened up, tentacles springing out of the surface and attaching to her spine in a smooth motion. There were only the smallest flinches that formed on the woman's face as the tentacles started to snap away at the air around her. It was only then that the station's sirens started to wail, signaling the coming guards that were running down the hall at this very second. She turned towards the device quickly, knowing that a single lucky bullet could be the end for her.
"The fools underestimated the power that my advanced science has granted me," she opened a panel, a blinking light awaited her vision, along with a series of buttons that the woman pressed so fast that one would wonder about the possible mistakes she could make.
Olivia had this backup plan in mind the moment that her tests and experiments had reached beyond the theory stage, knowing that the ignorant world would never accept the risk needed to progress. So it was good that she'd sent off the pod before her main plan had failed. A smarter person would've known the scorch marks on the roof of her apartment couldn't have come from the experiment but thankfully for her, neither the SHIELD Agents nor the powerful alien named Doyle realized this.
It was as the guards came into view, their pistols drawn and their voices screaming at her to stand down… that the Doctor finished inputting the commands on her device. The resulting action appeared to be an explosion so big that it took out the guards and left no trace of either the cell or the deadly Doctor Octopus, only a massive hole where they once were.
But miles away, the sound of metal cracking against the pavement of rooftops could be heard ringing out. The Doc was on the loose once again.
Chapter 10
- Location
- Ireland
(Pat Doyle: Rikers Island)
I shouldn't have trusted the imprisonment of Doc Ock to standard police. Oh, it was SHIELD that had arrested her, but it seemed that SHEILD wasn't the type to hold such a public criminal themselves. If she had been a monster, or even if I hadn't managed to save the few people that were in danger, Ock would've been in a cell so far down that she'd burn.
But that wasn't what had happened, instead a disarmed and seemingly helpless woman was put into holding and then escaped with the help of her advanced technology literally dropping from the sky. I had been strangely allowed to examine the cell that she had escaped from, but I think that was a thing that SHIELD set up for me. No doubt wanting me to like their organization, and it was working decently well.
They've given me enough rope so far, I just hoped that I wouldn't end up hanging myself with it, especially with how I wasn't able to glean anything at all from the cell. The only thing I really noticed came that the blast marks from her new arms landing appeared to be the same as the blast marks I had found on the roof of her former apartment building.
So that would explain what those were.
It wouldn't do much good to go looking for her by eye or by just searching the area. Ock was smart enough that I doubt anyone could find her all that fast. No, I was more likely to catch her by tracking the resources needed to rebuild her projects. It wasn't like she would be using many legal channels anymore but I knew just the right man to get me some feelers out on the black markets. I don't think even criminals would be dumb enough to knowingly help a woman that could end the world with her experiments.
Something that my next article would be sure to mention. Though, I wasn't super concerned given that SHIELD would be looking for her, and while lacking my raw capability at moving, they had the resources to be much better at finding this woman. Not that I wouldn't attempt it, but I had my doubts.
As I left after my fruitless investigation of the crime scene I tensed up with the sense that I was being watched. I darted my eyes around the area, flashing through the whole invisible spectrum, well about three spectrums but it's cooler to say whole. But it did let me see that cameras were watching my every move, from street cams to the cams that were littered around the prison, due to the small size of the cameras
From what I knew, it could be anyone that was watching me. Ross? He could want revenge, SHIELD? Could want to know more about me before approaching me once more? AIM? HYDRA?
I mean the last two could just be me being paranoid. From what my research told, AIM seemed to be legit and HYDRA dead but I wasn't putting past them to have survived in some new form, a Neo-Hydra. While AIM seeming legit meant shit all given Ross's actual somehow legit military career. My thoughts on all this were broken when my phone suddenly rang, the tone of banana phone telling me it was Louise that was calling me.
"Yo," I answered, deciding to continue walking down the street while answering. I didn't really have anything else to do for the day, so it wasn't like I was in a rush… but I was peckish for a snack so I decided to walk and talk. "What can I do for you, Lou."
Said young woman let out a sigh;
"First… don't call me Lou," she replied, her tone more exasperated than mad. An unusual mode for my friend but I suppose that we all undergo those sometimes. "Second, I've got great news!" Louise squealed… before her voice shifted to something less… energetic. "And some oh news!"
I let the air fill with awkward silence before scrunching my nose up.
"Tell me the good news, first," I told her, "I could use some."
"I've gotten a great job offer from Stark Industries!"
"That's amazing!" I said while walking up to a food vendor, a hotdog guy, and buying two dogs with everything on it. One amazing thing about being super-powered, I seem to have lost my aversion to the smell of ketchup and have begun to like most condiments. That combined with the Super Stomach, meant I wasn't too worried about whatever I ate anymore.
Except for pure milk... that could rot in hell.
"Bad news is… they know that it was me that snuck in, knocked out one of their guards, and stole their data."
I had been holding the phone between my ear and shoulder at this point, a hotdog in each hand while I took a large bite out of one. But at this news, I nearly dropped my phone, it was only my super speed that allowed me to catch the thing, eat a single dog, and go get the phone back to my ear before she would've even noticed I had done so.
"Shit, that's bad."
"Yeah," Louise replied, doing a sort of half sigh, half groan that I had only heard from cartoon characters before now. "But… they're not looking to press charges, Stark will even give me a job... if you agree to meet with Mr. Stark."
The second she said that… I came to a rather obvious conclusion. It was an easy thing to do, given the reputation of the man, in this universe, and in my own. Iron Man was a tech hero, tech was his business like having bullshit powers were Superman's.
"You know he's probably already hacked this call… right?"
Before she could even respond to my statement, a man's voice came out of my phone, overtaking her's.
"Wow, you caught on quickly, Blue."
(Louise: Moments Earlier)
Louise sat waiting in a hallway, dressed in a suit, with pants since she wasn't interested in wearing a skirt or even working in an environment that required her to wear one. It just wasn't an outfit that she was comfortable wearing. She arrived just moments ago for an interview, the job being offered as a simple assistant role for the offices in this building. This wasn't some great lab for Stark Industries, but instead, it was one of the offices that were set for legal documents, patents, contracts, and the like that were created and signed in this building.
That and it also housed the social media teams that Stark tended… to ignore. So in many ways either a thankless job or an easy ride depending on how they looked at it.
Louise was here for an assistant role, for the social media team. It had good pay, good hours, and even a nice forward path for a future career, or at least that was what was Louise told. Whether that was true or not was yet to be seen. She had been waiting here for the past ten minutes, not too long when it comes to the Job Interview process, but it was more than a little bit odd when put together with how there wasn't anyone else in queue to be interviewed… sent a bad vibe down her spine.
She heard the sounds of footsteps bouncing off the floor before Louise actually caught sight of someone that she hadn't thought she'd be meeting today. He wore a suit, one of the most expensive-looking suits that she'd ever seen, his hair only slightly messy while his facial hair was neatly trimmed.
This was Tony Stark, and from his strut to his smirk, Louise knew that the rich bastard was up to something.
"Well, well, well," Stark started, his eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. "If it's not the young girl that broke into one of my offices the other day," Louise jolted up from her seat, her heart beating a mile a minute as Stark continued walking past her, waving her to follow him along to the open office.
"You know, if it wasn't for just how meaningless that info was, I'd have you hauled into a cell for a few weeks," he sat down behind a desk, an open balcony behind showcasing a beautiful city skyline, as he said this, his left arm now pointing towards a chair in front his desk. It was then that he took out his phone, its hollow-tech screen far more advanced than anything that Louise had seen in her life before now. "But I gotta admit, I'm impressed at the whole setup. If I hadn't watched the news, then I would've never guessed that your boyfriend was so..."
Stark pressed a section of his phone, a display popping out of the desk and revealing a series of pictures that compared Blueman and Doyle, as well as the scenes of Blonsky attempting to attack him. Some were obviously taken with a phone camera, so were so fuzzy and blurry that you really couldn't tell what they were looking at. But other pictures, other videos even, were clearly from street cameras so Pat's form was unmistakable.
"You… know that it's not a secret anymore right?"
Stark looked up, his expression that of raw annoyance.
"I'm not blackmailing him or anything. Hell, I wanted to do that, I'd have you arrested and have him by the balls," he revealed slowly taking out a contract and sliding across the desk to her. "No, what I am doing is bribing you, you get him to meet with me and I'll give you the job. I think that a quick thinker like yourself could be useful given the situations that I seem to find myself in."
Louise looked down at the contract, her eyes peering over the paper with the sort of fine detail attention that many her age weren't capable of. As far as she could see, there wasn't anything unusual about the contact.
"I have to ask him if he's up to it," she said, when the former Stark Industries CEO nodded, she moved from her chair with her own phone in hand. It didn't take long for her to stand in a corner of the room and start a conversation with her powerful friend.
Her part in this ended when Pat said;
"You know he's probably already hacked this call… right?"
Louise turned around, her eyes now glaring at Stark, who only responded with a wink and another press of his phone's touch screen, causing the call to change over to him.
"Wow, you caught on quickly, Blue," Stark spoke, something that only caused Louise to glare even harder at the man. It was at this moment that two things happened, the first a redhead woman, wearing a suit much like Louise's but both far finer and extremely more expensive, entered the room. The younger woman instantly recognized her as Pepper Potts, the current CEO of Stark Industries.
Stark took one look at the older redhead, his grin became strained as she spotted Louise, giving her the side-eye as she passed by.
"Wait just one second," He exclaimed, turning his attention to Pepper. "Hey, honey… what brings you here?"
"Oh, imagine my surprise when I find out that you're holding a personal interview for a new assistant, not something that you wanted to do a few days ago," Pepper walked around the desk, her heels somehow causing Stark to flinch with every step. "A young redhead assistant at that… do you just have a type, Tony?"
There was nothing but silence.
It was at this moment that Louise couldn't help but an audible gag in the corner. Something that seemed to bring Miss Potts no small amount of enjoyment if her face was anything to go by, while Stark appeared to be sucking a grape from his.
"Well that answers that question," Pepper spoke, her tone sounding just slightly snide as she sat on Stark's desk.
"Pepper, I'm just doing Fury a-"
"You mean the Director of SHIELD, that Fury?" Louise spoke, her head snapping up. While she hadn't met the man, Pat was more than willing to tell her all about his encounter with the mysterious head of one of the most powerful organizations in the world.
SHIELD didn't like to make too many waves, but they had their fingers in so many pies that their reach and power were truly without question.
"I wasn't aware that old cue ball had met with ya, kid?"
Once more, Louise found herself being interrupted but this time it wasn't by a door opening. It was instead the sound of a loud crash, ringing out behind Stark, causing both him and Pepper to spot the very event that Louise could see normally from her vantage point. Pat stood on shaky feet like he was having trouble regaining his footing after having flown here as fast as he could. Louise wasn't sure how the Irishman had found where she was so quickly but she guessed that he may have called her Pops.
That would be a fun talk once she got home.
Pat flashed them all a grin as he walked forward, entering the office with the same kind of swager that one would expect from a movie star. There was a casual arrogance to him that came from knowing that he was basically invincible.
"Sorry, I ruined a moment between you two," Her friend spoke, his accent causing Pepper to visibly raise a brow before Louise caught her mouthing oh, that's what's going on to herself. "But I don't like to be put on hold, you asked to speak to me, Mister Stark?"
Even before Stark stood to full height, Louise could tell that Pat towered over the man by a good five to six inches. This was one of the few times that his height was really showcased since Stark was a small man, even smaller than his CEO in fact, who herself was a small woman.
"That's fine, you worked real well at breaking up a little misunderstanding," Stark grinned, looking Pat up and down like a piece of meat… that he was going to study for science. "And boy do you open up a number of scientific possibilities just knowing that you flew here."
"Aren't you small for an Iron Man?"
I shouldn't have trusted the imprisonment of Doc Ock to standard police. Oh, it was SHIELD that had arrested her, but it seemed that SHEILD wasn't the type to hold such a public criminal themselves. If she had been a monster, or even if I hadn't managed to save the few people that were in danger, Ock would've been in a cell so far down that she'd burn.
But that wasn't what had happened, instead a disarmed and seemingly helpless woman was put into holding and then escaped with the help of her advanced technology literally dropping from the sky. I had been strangely allowed to examine the cell that she had escaped from, but I think that was a thing that SHIELD set up for me. No doubt wanting me to like their organization, and it was working decently well.
They've given me enough rope so far, I just hoped that I wouldn't end up hanging myself with it, especially with how I wasn't able to glean anything at all from the cell. The only thing I really noticed came that the blast marks from her new arms landing appeared to be the same as the blast marks I had found on the roof of her former apartment building.
So that would explain what those were.
It wouldn't do much good to go looking for her by eye or by just searching the area. Ock was smart enough that I doubt anyone could find her all that fast. No, I was more likely to catch her by tracking the resources needed to rebuild her projects. It wasn't like she would be using many legal channels anymore but I knew just the right man to get me some feelers out on the black markets. I don't think even criminals would be dumb enough to knowingly help a woman that could end the world with her experiments.
Something that my next article would be sure to mention. Though, I wasn't super concerned given that SHIELD would be looking for her, and while lacking my raw capability at moving, they had the resources to be much better at finding this woman. Not that I wouldn't attempt it, but I had my doubts.
As I left after my fruitless investigation of the crime scene I tensed up with the sense that I was being watched. I darted my eyes around the area, flashing through the whole invisible spectrum, well about three spectrums but it's cooler to say whole. But it did let me see that cameras were watching my every move, from street cams to the cams that were littered around the prison, due to the small size of the cameras
From what I knew, it could be anyone that was watching me. Ross? He could want revenge, SHIELD? Could want to know more about me before approaching me once more? AIM? HYDRA?
I mean the last two could just be me being paranoid. From what my research told, AIM seemed to be legit and HYDRA dead but I wasn't putting past them to have survived in some new form, a Neo-Hydra. While AIM seeming legit meant shit all given Ross's actual somehow legit military career. My thoughts on all this were broken when my phone suddenly rang, the tone of banana phone telling me it was Louise that was calling me.
"Yo," I answered, deciding to continue walking down the street while answering. I didn't really have anything else to do for the day, so it wasn't like I was in a rush… but I was peckish for a snack so I decided to walk and talk. "What can I do for you, Lou."
Said young woman let out a sigh;
"First… don't call me Lou," she replied, her tone more exasperated than mad. An unusual mode for my friend but I suppose that we all undergo those sometimes. "Second, I've got great news!" Louise squealed… before her voice shifted to something less… energetic. "And some oh news!"
I let the air fill with awkward silence before scrunching my nose up.
"Tell me the good news, first," I told her, "I could use some."
"I've gotten a great job offer from Stark Industries!"
"That's amazing!" I said while walking up to a food vendor, a hotdog guy, and buying two dogs with everything on it. One amazing thing about being super-powered, I seem to have lost my aversion to the smell of ketchup and have begun to like most condiments. That combined with the Super Stomach, meant I wasn't too worried about whatever I ate anymore.
Except for pure milk... that could rot in hell.
"Bad news is… they know that it was me that snuck in, knocked out one of their guards, and stole their data."
I had been holding the phone between my ear and shoulder at this point, a hotdog in each hand while I took a large bite out of one. But at this news, I nearly dropped my phone, it was only my super speed that allowed me to catch the thing, eat a single dog, and go get the phone back to my ear before she would've even noticed I had done so.
"Shit, that's bad."
"Yeah," Louise replied, doing a sort of half sigh, half groan that I had only heard from cartoon characters before now. "But… they're not looking to press charges, Stark will even give me a job... if you agree to meet with Mr. Stark."
The second she said that… I came to a rather obvious conclusion. It was an easy thing to do, given the reputation of the man, in this universe, and in my own. Iron Man was a tech hero, tech was his business like having bullshit powers were Superman's.
"You know he's probably already hacked this call… right?"
Before she could even respond to my statement, a man's voice came out of my phone, overtaking her's.
"Wow, you caught on quickly, Blue."
(Louise: Moments Earlier)
Louise sat waiting in a hallway, dressed in a suit, with pants since she wasn't interested in wearing a skirt or even working in an environment that required her to wear one. It just wasn't an outfit that she was comfortable wearing. She arrived just moments ago for an interview, the job being offered as a simple assistant role for the offices in this building. This wasn't some great lab for Stark Industries, but instead, it was one of the offices that were set for legal documents, patents, contracts, and the like that were created and signed in this building.
That and it also housed the social media teams that Stark tended… to ignore. So in many ways either a thankless job or an easy ride depending on how they looked at it.
Louise was here for an assistant role, for the social media team. It had good pay, good hours, and even a nice forward path for a future career, or at least that was what was Louise told. Whether that was true or not was yet to be seen. She had been waiting here for the past ten minutes, not too long when it comes to the Job Interview process, but it was more than a little bit odd when put together with how there wasn't anyone else in queue to be interviewed… sent a bad vibe down her spine.
She heard the sounds of footsteps bouncing off the floor before Louise actually caught sight of someone that she hadn't thought she'd be meeting today. He wore a suit, one of the most expensive-looking suits that she'd ever seen, his hair only slightly messy while his facial hair was neatly trimmed.
This was Tony Stark, and from his strut to his smirk, Louise knew that the rich bastard was up to something.
"Well, well, well," Stark started, his eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. "If it's not the young girl that broke into one of my offices the other day," Louise jolted up from her seat, her heart beating a mile a minute as Stark continued walking past her, waving her to follow him along to the open office.
"You know, if it wasn't for just how meaningless that info was, I'd have you hauled into a cell for a few weeks," he sat down behind a desk, an open balcony behind showcasing a beautiful city skyline, as he said this, his left arm now pointing towards a chair in front his desk. It was then that he took out his phone, its hollow-tech screen far more advanced than anything that Louise had seen in her life before now. "But I gotta admit, I'm impressed at the whole setup. If I hadn't watched the news, then I would've never guessed that your boyfriend was so..."
Stark pressed a section of his phone, a display popping out of the desk and revealing a series of pictures that compared Blueman and Doyle, as well as the scenes of Blonsky attempting to attack him. Some were obviously taken with a phone camera, so were so fuzzy and blurry that you really couldn't tell what they were looking at. But other pictures, other videos even, were clearly from street cameras so Pat's form was unmistakable.
"You… know that it's not a secret anymore right?"
Stark looked up, his expression that of raw annoyance.
"I'm not blackmailing him or anything. Hell, I wanted to do that, I'd have you arrested and have him by the balls," he revealed slowly taking out a contract and sliding across the desk to her. "No, what I am doing is bribing you, you get him to meet with me and I'll give you the job. I think that a quick thinker like yourself could be useful given the situations that I seem to find myself in."
Louise looked down at the contract, her eyes peering over the paper with the sort of fine detail attention that many her age weren't capable of. As far as she could see, there wasn't anything unusual about the contact.
"I have to ask him if he's up to it," she said, when the former Stark Industries CEO nodded, she moved from her chair with her own phone in hand. It didn't take long for her to stand in a corner of the room and start a conversation with her powerful friend.
Her part in this ended when Pat said;
"You know he's probably already hacked this call… right?"
Louise turned around, her eyes now glaring at Stark, who only responded with a wink and another press of his phone's touch screen, causing the call to change over to him.
"Wow, you caught on quickly, Blue," Stark spoke, something that only caused Louise to glare even harder at the man. It was at this moment that two things happened, the first a redhead woman, wearing a suit much like Louise's but both far finer and extremely more expensive, entered the room. The younger woman instantly recognized her as Pepper Potts, the current CEO of Stark Industries.
Stark took one look at the older redhead, his grin became strained as she spotted Louise, giving her the side-eye as she passed by.
"Wait just one second," He exclaimed, turning his attention to Pepper. "Hey, honey… what brings you here?"
"Oh, imagine my surprise when I find out that you're holding a personal interview for a new assistant, not something that you wanted to do a few days ago," Pepper walked around the desk, her heels somehow causing Stark to flinch with every step. "A young redhead assistant at that… do you just have a type, Tony?"
There was nothing but silence.
It was at this moment that Louise couldn't help but an audible gag in the corner. Something that seemed to bring Miss Potts no small amount of enjoyment if her face was anything to go by, while Stark appeared to be sucking a grape from his.
"Well that answers that question," Pepper spoke, her tone sounding just slightly snide as she sat on Stark's desk.
"Pepper, I'm just doing Fury a-"
"You mean the Director of SHIELD, that Fury?" Louise spoke, her head snapping up. While she hadn't met the man, Pat was more than willing to tell her all about his encounter with the mysterious head of one of the most powerful organizations in the world.
SHIELD didn't like to make too many waves, but they had their fingers in so many pies that their reach and power were truly without question.
"I wasn't aware that old cue ball had met with ya, kid?"
Once more, Louise found herself being interrupted but this time it wasn't by a door opening. It was instead the sound of a loud crash, ringing out behind Stark, causing both him and Pepper to spot the very event that Louise could see normally from her vantage point. Pat stood on shaky feet like he was having trouble regaining his footing after having flown here as fast as he could. Louise wasn't sure how the Irishman had found where she was so quickly but she guessed that he may have called her Pops.
That would be a fun talk once she got home.
Pat flashed them all a grin as he walked forward, entering the office with the same kind of swager that one would expect from a movie star. There was a casual arrogance to him that came from knowing that he was basically invincible.
"Sorry, I ruined a moment between you two," Her friend spoke, his accent causing Pepper to visibly raise a brow before Louise caught her mouthing oh, that's what's going on to herself. "But I don't like to be put on hold, you asked to speak to me, Mister Stark?"
Even before Stark stood to full height, Louise could tell that Pat towered over the man by a good five to six inches. This was one of the few times that his height was really showcased since Stark was a small man, even smaller than his CEO in fact, who herself was a small woman.
"That's fine, you worked real well at breaking up a little misunderstanding," Stark grinned, looking Pat up and down like a piece of meat… that he was going to study for science. "And boy do you open up a number of scientific possibilities just knowing that you flew here."
"Aren't you small for an Iron Man?"
Cant wait for next chapter!
- Pronouns
- He
Great chapter i love tension
Chapter 11
- Location
- Ireland
(Pat Doyle)
"Really? A New Hope reference?" Stark raised a brow cheekily at me, grinning at me with a smile that was closer to what I would've expected from a hyena from the Lion King than from a person. "With some weak sauce like that, I don't think someone that's two steps away from being part of the Blueman group should be throwing any stones."
I blinked, before looking down, realizing that I was wearing a blue shirt with a pair of blue jeans. Now that he mentions I probably should stop dressing as a Power Ranger, as in color-coded clothes. If nothing else, just for the variety sake.
"Hey, ain't nobody is making fun of the hotrod red ranger suit you run around in," I shrugged, leaning my back onto a wall behind Lousie, causing her to turn slightly on her chair so she could keep both me and Tony insight.
"Ranger suit?" he held back a snort. "Don't think spandex looks good on me, it makes my ass look fat. You, on the other hand, look like a regular color-coded Blue Power Ranger."
"Why, thank y-"
"What's happening right now?" Louise intruded, her expression the definition of confused, while the other redhead in the room just rolled her eyes. It seemed that Pepper expected this sort of thing. "Wasn't this going to be a serious meeting, why are you two trading insults?"
"This is just how they compare… egos."
Miss Potts' rather… suggestive comment was something that I let pass if only so I could actually focus on more important things than that. Like what Stark wanted with me, or what Fury wanted the man to do.
"So… let's leave the smack talk alone for now," I said while hoping that he'd take me up on it. I was not good at trading verbal blows, so trying my hand against Stark wouldn't end with me on top. "What's this favor that you're doing for Fury?"
Now, this brought a smile to Stark's face, he even sat back down and started to lean back on his seat with his feet up on the desk. It was at this moment, that I think I understood what the senators felt like in Iron Man 2.
"Well, see the cyclops is an old softy, I know it surprised me too," he winked, chuckling as he did. "And he felt bad about how you're going to lose your job because of him sending you Ross's way, so-"
"Wait, what?" The duel voice of myself and Louise sprung out, it didn't even take me a second to realize why.
"The article, the first one I wrote," I sighed, rubbing my forehead, I noticed that Stark nodded slowly while Louise's expression was still as confused as before. "It was actually about me, but that's not good optics."
"Especially given the way that you put yourself on a pedestal," Stark added with a smug grin. "Nice job there, I'd done the same in your shoes."
Oh, that hit me right in the throat, I hadn't even been thinking about that when I wrote the damn thing. See, writing about yourself, as I had done, without admitting that I was even a little bit involved. That was a violation of journalistic ethics. When this got out, it wouldn't look good on me, Oh, sure no one so far could prove that I was Lugh, but that wouldn't last for long. There was only so long before someone figured out the man that matched every description of Lugh, shared many of the same powers, and even sounded like him… was Lugh.
It was only common sense.
I doubted Ellison would fire me over this, as it wasn't I hadn't done anything illegal just unethical. Not only that but the guy's way too soft-hearted to fire me for this, given what he'd assume my background was. But I mightn't ever write a story for the paper again, it wouldn't be good optics and I would've proved to be untrustworthy. It was possible that I would be struck as an office assistant, which wouldn't be an awful job… just not to my personal taste.
It wouldn't let me get away with keeping my ear on the ground for those juicy threads I was looking for.
"Since how you've broken the whole sacred creed of Journalists is out now," Stark continued on, with air quotes and all. This finally allowed Louise to grasp what he was talking about. At least I think she did? I didn't really have much time to explain it at the moment. "Fury was feeling bad about the whole thing, and hinted to me that it meant to be a good idea to have my own super-powered investigator on hand to look into things."
"So you invited my friend here, offered her a job, all so you could offer me a job?"
"That's about right, what do you say?"
I mean, it sounded like a good enough job offer, much better than my future prospects with the Bulletin. The biggest issue was working for someone like Tony Stark, a man that was famous, multiversally known at that, for being an ego-driven, alcoholic that's heart was in the right place. But from what I've read about this version of Stark… he wasn't an alcoholic? So… ya?
"So what do you want?" I asked, shaking me head free of those thoughts.
"What man wouldn't want a super-powered man hanging around them?" Stark's eyes twinkled. "Especially given the trouble I've had recently."
I suppose that it would make sense given the attempts that Russian made on his life, the Hammer Drones… and the attempts on his life before Vanko. But I still don't trust his word on this, there was something… untruthful about it.
"What's in it for me?" I responded, staring at his arc reactor with the large variety of visionary powers I had in my command. At first, I hoped that it would give me an understanding of how it was made since he had made one in a cave using some scraps. While I recognized a lot of the materials it was made from, or I could at least narrow down a few possibilities from some research I had been doing. There was one element that is used to power the reactor, no could I make sense of how the thing was constructed overall.
"Money," Stark responded, loudly breaking me from my thoughts about his Arc Reactor. "Good working hours, traveling to exotic locations."
"It sounds lovely," I drawled, licking my lips as I walked over to Louise, finally taking a seat. "But there's gotta be a lot more in it for me. I'm-"
Stark put up his hands, stopping me from speaking without a verbal command. I could tell both, why this man had been in command of a company like this even with Stain around in the same management circles, and why this man could walk into a senate hearing and out without giving them a single thing.
Within a single second Stark waved his right arm in the air, turning around a gaudy holographic display, showcasing… my own PC's desktop.
"You've hacked my desktop," I stated, before deciding to place a single finger on the desk before me. I pushed down, the part that was under my finger crumbled into dust within a moment. Something that Stark didn't take any heed of, though Potts stood up in fright. "So… what? You want a medal?"
I wasn't even going to ask how he managed to do this to a computer that I had never connected to the internet for this very reason. I could only presume that he had gotten someone to plug in the ethernet cable so he could do this.
"So, you think that you can find weird stuff while working in just New York?" He quirked an eyebrow. "Now, I'm not going to ask what you're looking for, I couldn't even tell from what files were on the computer alone, but I will say, you're better off with the web I can cast… than the one the Bulletin could."
That statement gave something away to me, something put a grin on my face.
"You're not sure what I did will be a problem are you?" I snorted. "You're just preempting the chance that I could so you can have an easy sell."
That seemed to catch the two redheads off guard, even if Stark only smiled in response. I could tell that I had surprised him as well, something that brought me some small pleasure. He'd been the one dictating things since I got here. But now, I could tell that there was more than just an altruistic desire coming from him. Stark wanted something from me, something more than having me in his employ. Working for him would give me plenty of things, but it could also put me under his control.
But I wonder how much his ego can take?
"How about this," I said, leaning forward with what one may call a smug smile. "If you can find Octavius, I'll be your personal investigator… but if I find her first, you make me a suit. Nothing fancy, I'm not looking for a Iron Man suit just something that won't become swiss as easily."
Stark's stare became laser while Potts and Louise seemed to briefly gasp before regaining their composure rapidly. I waited for a few moments, letting Stark have time to think the offer over.
"My mind versus your powers," The man hummed, stroking his chin. "That could work, that could work," he repeated, tapping away at his gross holographic keyboard. "Well, be prepared to lose Blue Boy. Because fantastic powers may be your Homefield, but brains are mine."
"Oh," I grinned standing up from my chair. "Don't think that it's just my powers you have to worry about," I started to walk back towards the balcony, preparing to launch myself into the air and resume my search for the nefarious scientist… when Louise once more spoke up;
"I'm still getting the job… right?"
I turned around to see Potts giving Stark a glare when the former CEO shrugged, causing her to break out into a sigh. It was only after giving her notepad a once over that the current CEO of Stark Industries spoke;
"Come with me, I'll find you a place to work."
(Jim O'Reilly)
Jim jumped up out of his bed, the alarm blaring into his ears. Today was the last day off since he had taken on that entire crew in the pub and slaughtered them. The award was much more than he had ever dreamed off, but then again. Why wouldn't it be, he had just crippled the Kitchen Irish in a way that they wouldn't be able to recover from for years.
And given his straight-laced reputation with them, they'd never look for him as the hitman, even if someone recalled him entering the pub.
But the money alone didn't seem to give him any relief.
Whenever he closed his eyes for longer than a second he could see the dull dead faces of his old mates, O'Leary's face, gasping for a final breath, his face burning off as the fires of cremation came over his body. But Jim pushed the visions back, because he was here for something more now, something beyond mere bonds of brotherhood that he had once developed with the crooks of his past.
He was working for the future of this city.
"Honey!" his wife yelled out, her voice cutting through his bleak thoughts, saving him from being swallowed whole by the guilt that had been spreading through his soul these past few days. "Mr. Wesley is on the phone for you!"
There wasn't a second wasted, Jim launched himself from his bed, practically leaping down some of his stairs. It wasn't without notice by his wife, who couldn't help but roll her eyes as he hurried to place the phone at his ear.
"Yes, sir?"
"Ah good," Wesley proclaimed. "I hope I'm not catching you at a bad time. I would hate to reward your dedication by annoying you while you enjoyed some well-rewarded family time."
"No, sir," O'Reilly couldn't help but shake his head, even as he understood that the other man wouldn't have been able to tell that he had done so. "I was just having a lazy day to myself."
"Good, good, I'll get right into it. We need you in today, we've discovered a few issues that need addressing."
"What sort of issues?"
"That kid of yours, we've noticed that she's been hanging out with the super-powered reporter."
He didn't speak for a moment, not able to find his breath in the haze of adrenaline that rushed through his body at that very moment.
"... I'll come in right away, sir."
Jim could tell that it was going to be a long day ahead of him.
(Tony Stark-Sometime later)
He didn't take any heed of Pepper as she strutted back into the office, instead, his focus was deadlocked onto the computer screen he had ahead of him. While earlier he had been using a holographic keyboard as the control, Tony had replaced it moments ago with the real thing, needing the sense of tactility such an item granted him to really get going.
"Tony, are you still at this?"
Pepper was slightly confused when she had left him in this room a few hours ago the man had been confident that he would find the rogue Doctor within minutes. But here he was, hours later and still not any closer to finding his former employee.
"Well, I'm not one to be wrong about things, but in this case. Octavius really has covered her tracks. Thought it would be much easier than this. She's clearly had some sort of breakthrough. Maybe spite is a better motivator than I thought?"
Pepper walked around the desk, coming over so she was standing behind Tony with her head coming in close to his ear. While there was plenty of information on a screen that she couldn't make heads or tails of, such as the schematics of a prototype of the Doctor's famous tentacles, among other things, the maps of the city with lines drawn over them were much more in her wheelhouse.
But the lines appeared to end in the middle of nowhere, on random rooftops with large scribbles drawn over them.
"She's blacked out all available security cameras in a four-block radius, something that will cause more than a few problems for the people living there, but the main thing is I've been forced to use satellites to track the marks that her tentacles leave on the ground. Something that ends in several different locations."
"And that's all you could find? No bank details? No warehouses under an alias?"
Tony nodded, closing his eyes and leaning back into his chair with a heavy sigh.
"Are you really going to make him a suit?" Pepper couldn't help but bring up the topic now that they were alone once more. It brought the former CEO back to the real world and he gave her a grin that contained the usual sort of confident swagger that the man was known for.
"It doesn't matter, I get what I want either way,"
Pepper didn't even have to ask her boyfriend to clarify there as he stood up and reached over to a nearby cabinet, taking two glasses and pouring out a drink before he gave her a wink.
"See, Fury asked me to do an assessment on the guy, he's already got the whole psych/how well does in the group evaluation that I went under," Tony explained in-between sips, licking his lips and taking in breaths. "He wants me to figure what his limits are, without directly asking… because… "
"Because... ?"
Tony shrugged and gave an airy chuckle.
"He didn't say, but Fury helped me and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt… just this once."
With that said, Stark went back to walk, pulling up another holographic display while Pepper's eyes went over to the clocks on the wall, wondering how long it would take Tony before he was too tired to go on. After ten minutes, she reached into a desk drawer, pulled out a laptop, and walked over to a lounge couch over in the corner of the room.
If he was going to spend the whole day and night working, she might as well do the same.
(Pat Doyle)
Louise was talking about the oddness of her father's working hours while we were having lunch. I was still off official working hours, given the sheer scope of my last story it was decided that I deserved it, but Ellison wanted me to come in after lunch. I chewed on a sandwich, the ham and cheese esd as familiar as it was tasty. It turned out that flight opened up a whole new avenue for produce that I hadn't access to before. So a quick flight to Ireland and I was able to get myself some real Irish cheese and ham.
The ham didn't taste any different, but the cheddar was my favorite brand.
"I mean, he's off odd hours in the night, there's never a real schedule," she continued to explain what was bothering her today. "And not to mention the super suspicious talks he has with his boss. It's so obviously coded but I can't tell if it's just he doesn't want mom to worry or if he's actually doing illegal shit."
"Security can be dangerous," I half-heartedly agreed. "So I can see why you'd think that could be it either."
There wasn't a lot I could say to my friend, I didn't know her father well enough to comment, nor did I think it was my place to throw out some theories about what he could be doing. I had only known them for the last few months. It wouldn't be right of me to just assume things passed what Jim had been doing.
Not after he left the criminal life behind.
Louise simply sighed, lowering her head into her hands while picking at her salad every once in a while. It seemed the situation had gotten down in the dumps, but perhaps she only needed her mind taken off things.
"How did the job go after I left?"
I didn't even bother to look at her at this second and I could tell that Louise was rolling her eyes.
"I'm making coffee and crafting office notes," her moan made me laugh. "It's just sooooo boring. I thought that working for a tech company would involve more… like tech?"
This time my laugh was loud and booming, her expression told me that this would be a mistake but I was invincible, not much she could do without taking it too far.
"Well, it is an office job, if you wanted to work with the tech you were better off applying for that."
"Thanks, mom," Louise said sarcastically. "What about you, had any luck finding the roofie-loving doctor?"
"If I had you'd be the first to know," I said, mumbling through a few more bites of my sandwich, it turns out that even just flying above the city and x-raying the fuck out of it, hopefully, that wasn't literal, didn't let me find the madwoman all that quickly. "I think she's left the city, I'll need to start researching areas that would suit her needs."
"The needs of a woman that can make a portal between universes out of household goods?"
I stopped chewing, swallowed before I decided to give her that point.
"Good point, I'll just need to fly faster, cover more ground and all that."
"Have you figured out how to get around being hacked?" She asked me suddenly, briefly catching me off guard before a grin stretched over my face.
"Yup, just took out the wireless card from my laptop and I'll work from there."
Louise didn't seem to like that solution, but she didn't make it verbally known. Instead, she relied on giving a stare that few could give to a man that could tank bunker shells. Eventually, her stare was broken by a loud buzzer coming from her handbag.
"I'll see ya later, I've got to head back into work now."
With her gone, I made my own way towards the Bulletin.
It was as I walked into the Bulletin office with an odd sense of weight to my footsteps, I could feel the stares of my co-workers as I made my way further in. While there were some proud smiles before, now they were a mix of suspicion… and terror. It wasn't something that I liked.
Still, I simply ignored it for now, since any action I could've done right now might've only led to worse things. It wasn't long before I stepped into Ellison's office, my hand in my pocket while a laptop sat in a bag by my side.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" I asked. I was actually pretty tired, having spent the last day and a half searching the city for signs of Ock. It was the first time that I'd actually become tired since I got to this world, it was oddly nice, if not inconvenient at the moment.
"Yes, please take a seat," At his prompting, I picked up a chair without thinking about what I was doing. Ellison gave me an unamused stare till I realized what he had been asking of me… and so I put the chair down and sat. "I was wondering if you were cooking up any other news that could get us into trouble?"
I blinked a few times.
"Sorry?" I couldn't help but respond.
"I've just had to fight off a few government agencies asking me where the hell you got your sources, that I needed to give them over to them," Ellison took in a deep breath. "So I was wondering if I should prepare for another angry call."
I scoffed.
"I wouldn't worry about that, I've been spending my spare tracking Doc Ock," I rolled my shoulders and leaned back in the chair. "Also got an offer from Stark for a job, not ready yet to take that up-"
"Wait, Stark's trying to poach you?" Ellison's expression was a mix between a frown and a grin as if he couldn't tell if he wanted to be happy for me, or mad at Stark. "I hope you said… no?"
"Not in so many words," I cringed, kind of feeling bad about the whole thing. It was obvious that Ellison didn't even think to punish me for breaking ethics, which mightn't be a good thing. "I've sorta made a bet with him that I would find Doc Ock before he could."
Ellison gave me a sharp look before slamming his hand down on his desk.
"Then what are you doing? Go get out there and find the woman before she takes out the entire state! Show that millionaire what a real investigative reporter can do!"
With a large grin spreading across my face I stood up, walked over to the fire exit, while the eyes of the office were on me, there was a large window that allowed someone to peer into Ellison's office and flew off into the sky.
(Somewhere near The Canadian Border)
He was sitting down on a park bench, a paper on his lap that had the second page of his dreams. General "Thunderbolt" Ross' true nature had been revealed to the world, which had brought a large smile to his face, and reading about all the details that he had disclosed being aired unfiltered. That told Bruce that he had made the right decision.
Even if the guy hadn't been entirely truthful about himself.
"Are you reading that again?" Betty's voice brought his head out of the pages and back to the real world. The real world that had General Ross's dreams splattered against the pavement.
"Only one more time, I just want to get that last piece of satisfaction," Bruce explained, much to her semi-amused annoyance. "Then I'll be off again, the life of a fugitive."
Bruce Banner couldn't help the sigh that escaped his lips, his eyes dropping to the ground. While Ross seemed to be getting what he deserved finally, that didn't mean Bruce could afford to stick around in one place, even though the cure appeared to have worked, there were too many people that would be after his mind to recreate the Hulk. So he was going to be running once more.
A soft hand enveloped his own, causing him to look back to Betty, whose soft smile brought warmth to his heart.
"This time, we're doing this together."
"Together."
"Really? A New Hope reference?" Stark raised a brow cheekily at me, grinning at me with a smile that was closer to what I would've expected from a hyena from the Lion King than from a person. "With some weak sauce like that, I don't think someone that's two steps away from being part of the Blueman group should be throwing any stones."
I blinked, before looking down, realizing that I was wearing a blue shirt with a pair of blue jeans. Now that he mentions I probably should stop dressing as a Power Ranger, as in color-coded clothes. If nothing else, just for the variety sake.
"Hey, ain't nobody is making fun of the hotrod red ranger suit you run around in," I shrugged, leaning my back onto a wall behind Lousie, causing her to turn slightly on her chair so she could keep both me and Tony insight.
"Ranger suit?" he held back a snort. "Don't think spandex looks good on me, it makes my ass look fat. You, on the other hand, look like a regular color-coded Blue Power Ranger."
"Why, thank y-"
"What's happening right now?" Louise intruded, her expression the definition of confused, while the other redhead in the room just rolled her eyes. It seemed that Pepper expected this sort of thing. "Wasn't this going to be a serious meeting, why are you two trading insults?"
"This is just how they compare… egos."
Miss Potts' rather… suggestive comment was something that I let pass if only so I could actually focus on more important things than that. Like what Stark wanted with me, or what Fury wanted the man to do.
"So… let's leave the smack talk alone for now," I said while hoping that he'd take me up on it. I was not good at trading verbal blows, so trying my hand against Stark wouldn't end with me on top. "What's this favor that you're doing for Fury?"
Now, this brought a smile to Stark's face, he even sat back down and started to lean back on his seat with his feet up on the desk. It was at this moment, that I think I understood what the senators felt like in Iron Man 2.
"Well, see the cyclops is an old softy, I know it surprised me too," he winked, chuckling as he did. "And he felt bad about how you're going to lose your job because of him sending you Ross's way, so-"
"Wait, what?" The duel voice of myself and Louise sprung out, it didn't even take me a second to realize why.
"The article, the first one I wrote," I sighed, rubbing my forehead, I noticed that Stark nodded slowly while Louise's expression was still as confused as before. "It was actually about me, but that's not good optics."
"Especially given the way that you put yourself on a pedestal," Stark added with a smug grin. "Nice job there, I'd done the same in your shoes."
Oh, that hit me right in the throat, I hadn't even been thinking about that when I wrote the damn thing. See, writing about yourself, as I had done, without admitting that I was even a little bit involved. That was a violation of journalistic ethics. When this got out, it wouldn't look good on me, Oh, sure no one so far could prove that I was Lugh, but that wouldn't last for long. There was only so long before someone figured out the man that matched every description of Lugh, shared many of the same powers, and even sounded like him… was Lugh.
It was only common sense.
I doubted Ellison would fire me over this, as it wasn't I hadn't done anything illegal just unethical. Not only that but the guy's way too soft-hearted to fire me for this, given what he'd assume my background was. But I mightn't ever write a story for the paper again, it wouldn't be good optics and I would've proved to be untrustworthy. It was possible that I would be struck as an office assistant, which wouldn't be an awful job… just not to my personal taste.
It wouldn't let me get away with keeping my ear on the ground for those juicy threads I was looking for.
"Since how you've broken the whole sacred creed of Journalists is out now," Stark continued on, with air quotes and all. This finally allowed Louise to grasp what he was talking about. At least I think she did? I didn't really have much time to explain it at the moment. "Fury was feeling bad about the whole thing, and hinted to me that it meant to be a good idea to have my own super-powered investigator on hand to look into things."
"So you invited my friend here, offered her a job, all so you could offer me a job?"
"That's about right, what do you say?"
I mean, it sounded like a good enough job offer, much better than my future prospects with the Bulletin. The biggest issue was working for someone like Tony Stark, a man that was famous, multiversally known at that, for being an ego-driven, alcoholic that's heart was in the right place. But from what I've read about this version of Stark… he wasn't an alcoholic? So… ya?
"So what do you want?" I asked, shaking me head free of those thoughts.
"What man wouldn't want a super-powered man hanging around them?" Stark's eyes twinkled. "Especially given the trouble I've had recently."
I suppose that it would make sense given the attempts that Russian made on his life, the Hammer Drones… and the attempts on his life before Vanko. But I still don't trust his word on this, there was something… untruthful about it.
"What's in it for me?" I responded, staring at his arc reactor with the large variety of visionary powers I had in my command. At first, I hoped that it would give me an understanding of how it was made since he had made one in a cave using some scraps. While I recognized a lot of the materials it was made from, or I could at least narrow down a few possibilities from some research I had been doing. There was one element that is used to power the reactor, no could I make sense of how the thing was constructed overall.
"Money," Stark responded, loudly breaking me from my thoughts about his Arc Reactor. "Good working hours, traveling to exotic locations."
"It sounds lovely," I drawled, licking my lips as I walked over to Louise, finally taking a seat. "But there's gotta be a lot more in it for me. I'm-"
Stark put up his hands, stopping me from speaking without a verbal command. I could tell both, why this man had been in command of a company like this even with Stain around in the same management circles, and why this man could walk into a senate hearing and out without giving them a single thing.
Within a single second Stark waved his right arm in the air, turning around a gaudy holographic display, showcasing… my own PC's desktop.
"You've hacked my desktop," I stated, before deciding to place a single finger on the desk before me. I pushed down, the part that was under my finger crumbled into dust within a moment. Something that Stark didn't take any heed of, though Potts stood up in fright. "So… what? You want a medal?"
I wasn't even going to ask how he managed to do this to a computer that I had never connected to the internet for this very reason. I could only presume that he had gotten someone to plug in the ethernet cable so he could do this.
"So, you think that you can find weird stuff while working in just New York?" He quirked an eyebrow. "Now, I'm not going to ask what you're looking for, I couldn't even tell from what files were on the computer alone, but I will say, you're better off with the web I can cast… than the one the Bulletin could."
That statement gave something away to me, something put a grin on my face.
"You're not sure what I did will be a problem are you?" I snorted. "You're just preempting the chance that I could so you can have an easy sell."
That seemed to catch the two redheads off guard, even if Stark only smiled in response. I could tell that I had surprised him as well, something that brought me some small pleasure. He'd been the one dictating things since I got here. But now, I could tell that there was more than just an altruistic desire coming from him. Stark wanted something from me, something more than having me in his employ. Working for him would give me plenty of things, but it could also put me under his control.
But I wonder how much his ego can take?
"How about this," I said, leaning forward with what one may call a smug smile. "If you can find Octavius, I'll be your personal investigator… but if I find her first, you make me a suit. Nothing fancy, I'm not looking for a Iron Man suit just something that won't become swiss as easily."
Stark's stare became laser while Potts and Louise seemed to briefly gasp before regaining their composure rapidly. I waited for a few moments, letting Stark have time to think the offer over.
"My mind versus your powers," The man hummed, stroking his chin. "That could work, that could work," he repeated, tapping away at his gross holographic keyboard. "Well, be prepared to lose Blue Boy. Because fantastic powers may be your Homefield, but brains are mine."
"Oh," I grinned standing up from my chair. "Don't think that it's just my powers you have to worry about," I started to walk back towards the balcony, preparing to launch myself into the air and resume my search for the nefarious scientist… when Louise once more spoke up;
"I'm still getting the job… right?"
I turned around to see Potts giving Stark a glare when the former CEO shrugged, causing her to break out into a sigh. It was only after giving her notepad a once over that the current CEO of Stark Industries spoke;
"Come with me, I'll find you a place to work."
(Jim O'Reilly)
Jim jumped up out of his bed, the alarm blaring into his ears. Today was the last day off since he had taken on that entire crew in the pub and slaughtered them. The award was much more than he had ever dreamed off, but then again. Why wouldn't it be, he had just crippled the Kitchen Irish in a way that they wouldn't be able to recover from for years.
And given his straight-laced reputation with them, they'd never look for him as the hitman, even if someone recalled him entering the pub.
But the money alone didn't seem to give him any relief.
Whenever he closed his eyes for longer than a second he could see the dull dead faces of his old mates, O'Leary's face, gasping for a final breath, his face burning off as the fires of cremation came over his body. But Jim pushed the visions back, because he was here for something more now, something beyond mere bonds of brotherhood that he had once developed with the crooks of his past.
He was working for the future of this city.
"Honey!" his wife yelled out, her voice cutting through his bleak thoughts, saving him from being swallowed whole by the guilt that had been spreading through his soul these past few days. "Mr. Wesley is on the phone for you!"
There wasn't a second wasted, Jim launched himself from his bed, practically leaping down some of his stairs. It wasn't without notice by his wife, who couldn't help but roll her eyes as he hurried to place the phone at his ear.
"Yes, sir?"
"Ah good," Wesley proclaimed. "I hope I'm not catching you at a bad time. I would hate to reward your dedication by annoying you while you enjoyed some well-rewarded family time."
"No, sir," O'Reilly couldn't help but shake his head, even as he understood that the other man wouldn't have been able to tell that he had done so. "I was just having a lazy day to myself."
"Good, good, I'll get right into it. We need you in today, we've discovered a few issues that need addressing."
"What sort of issues?"
"That kid of yours, we've noticed that she's been hanging out with the super-powered reporter."
He didn't speak for a moment, not able to find his breath in the haze of adrenaline that rushed through his body at that very moment.
"... I'll come in right away, sir."
Jim could tell that it was going to be a long day ahead of him.
(Tony Stark-Sometime later)
He didn't take any heed of Pepper as she strutted back into the office, instead, his focus was deadlocked onto the computer screen he had ahead of him. While earlier he had been using a holographic keyboard as the control, Tony had replaced it moments ago with the real thing, needing the sense of tactility such an item granted him to really get going.
"Tony, are you still at this?"
Pepper was slightly confused when she had left him in this room a few hours ago the man had been confident that he would find the rogue Doctor within minutes. But here he was, hours later and still not any closer to finding his former employee.
"Well, I'm not one to be wrong about things, but in this case. Octavius really has covered her tracks. Thought it would be much easier than this. She's clearly had some sort of breakthrough. Maybe spite is a better motivator than I thought?"
Pepper walked around the desk, coming over so she was standing behind Tony with her head coming in close to his ear. While there was plenty of information on a screen that she couldn't make heads or tails of, such as the schematics of a prototype of the Doctor's famous tentacles, among other things, the maps of the city with lines drawn over them were much more in her wheelhouse.
But the lines appeared to end in the middle of nowhere, on random rooftops with large scribbles drawn over them.
"She's blacked out all available security cameras in a four-block radius, something that will cause more than a few problems for the people living there, but the main thing is I've been forced to use satellites to track the marks that her tentacles leave on the ground. Something that ends in several different locations."
"And that's all you could find? No bank details? No warehouses under an alias?"
Tony nodded, closing his eyes and leaning back into his chair with a heavy sigh.
"Are you really going to make him a suit?" Pepper couldn't help but bring up the topic now that they were alone once more. It brought the former CEO back to the real world and he gave her a grin that contained the usual sort of confident swagger that the man was known for.
"It doesn't matter, I get what I want either way,"
Pepper didn't even have to ask her boyfriend to clarify there as he stood up and reached over to a nearby cabinet, taking two glasses and pouring out a drink before he gave her a wink.
"See, Fury asked me to do an assessment on the guy, he's already got the whole psych/how well does in the group evaluation that I went under," Tony explained in-between sips, licking his lips and taking in breaths. "He wants me to figure what his limits are, without directly asking… because… "
"Because... ?"
Tony shrugged and gave an airy chuckle.
"He didn't say, but Fury helped me and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt… just this once."
With that said, Stark went back to walk, pulling up another holographic display while Pepper's eyes went over to the clocks on the wall, wondering how long it would take Tony before he was too tired to go on. After ten minutes, she reached into a desk drawer, pulled out a laptop, and walked over to a lounge couch over in the corner of the room.
If he was going to spend the whole day and night working, she might as well do the same.
(Pat Doyle)
Louise was talking about the oddness of her father's working hours while we were having lunch. I was still off official working hours, given the sheer scope of my last story it was decided that I deserved it, but Ellison wanted me to come in after lunch. I chewed on a sandwich, the ham and cheese esd as familiar as it was tasty. It turned out that flight opened up a whole new avenue for produce that I hadn't access to before. So a quick flight to Ireland and I was able to get myself some real Irish cheese and ham.
The ham didn't taste any different, but the cheddar was my favorite brand.
"I mean, he's off odd hours in the night, there's never a real schedule," she continued to explain what was bothering her today. "And not to mention the super suspicious talks he has with his boss. It's so obviously coded but I can't tell if it's just he doesn't want mom to worry or if he's actually doing illegal shit."
"Security can be dangerous," I half-heartedly agreed. "So I can see why you'd think that could be it either."
There wasn't a lot I could say to my friend, I didn't know her father well enough to comment, nor did I think it was my place to throw out some theories about what he could be doing. I had only known them for the last few months. It wouldn't be right of me to just assume things passed what Jim had been doing.
Not after he left the criminal life behind.
Louise simply sighed, lowering her head into her hands while picking at her salad every once in a while. It seemed the situation had gotten down in the dumps, but perhaps she only needed her mind taken off things.
"How did the job go after I left?"
I didn't even bother to look at her at this second and I could tell that Louise was rolling her eyes.
"I'm making coffee and crafting office notes," her moan made me laugh. "It's just sooooo boring. I thought that working for a tech company would involve more… like tech?"
This time my laugh was loud and booming, her expression told me that this would be a mistake but I was invincible, not much she could do without taking it too far.
"Well, it is an office job, if you wanted to work with the tech you were better off applying for that."
"Thanks, mom," Louise said sarcastically. "What about you, had any luck finding the roofie-loving doctor?"
"If I had you'd be the first to know," I said, mumbling through a few more bites of my sandwich, it turns out that even just flying above the city and x-raying the fuck out of it, hopefully, that wasn't literal, didn't let me find the madwoman all that quickly. "I think she's left the city, I'll need to start researching areas that would suit her needs."
"The needs of a woman that can make a portal between universes out of household goods?"
I stopped chewing, swallowed before I decided to give her that point.
"Good point, I'll just need to fly faster, cover more ground and all that."
"Have you figured out how to get around being hacked?" She asked me suddenly, briefly catching me off guard before a grin stretched over my face.
"Yup, just took out the wireless card from my laptop and I'll work from there."
Louise didn't seem to like that solution, but she didn't make it verbally known. Instead, she relied on giving a stare that few could give to a man that could tank bunker shells. Eventually, her stare was broken by a loud buzzer coming from her handbag.
"I'll see ya later, I've got to head back into work now."
With her gone, I made my own way towards the Bulletin.
It was as I walked into the Bulletin office with an odd sense of weight to my footsteps, I could feel the stares of my co-workers as I made my way further in. While there were some proud smiles before, now they were a mix of suspicion… and terror. It wasn't something that I liked.
Still, I simply ignored it for now, since any action I could've done right now might've only led to worse things. It wasn't long before I stepped into Ellison's office, my hand in my pocket while a laptop sat in a bag by my side.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" I asked. I was actually pretty tired, having spent the last day and a half searching the city for signs of Ock. It was the first time that I'd actually become tired since I got to this world, it was oddly nice, if not inconvenient at the moment.
"Yes, please take a seat," At his prompting, I picked up a chair without thinking about what I was doing. Ellison gave me an unamused stare till I realized what he had been asking of me… and so I put the chair down and sat. "I was wondering if you were cooking up any other news that could get us into trouble?"
I blinked a few times.
"Sorry?" I couldn't help but respond.
"I've just had to fight off a few government agencies asking me where the hell you got your sources, that I needed to give them over to them," Ellison took in a deep breath. "So I was wondering if I should prepare for another angry call."
I scoffed.
"I wouldn't worry about that, I've been spending my spare tracking Doc Ock," I rolled my shoulders and leaned back in the chair. "Also got an offer from Stark for a job, not ready yet to take that up-"
"Wait, Stark's trying to poach you?" Ellison's expression was a mix between a frown and a grin as if he couldn't tell if he wanted to be happy for me, or mad at Stark. "I hope you said… no?"
"Not in so many words," I cringed, kind of feeling bad about the whole thing. It was obvious that Ellison didn't even think to punish me for breaking ethics, which mightn't be a good thing. "I've sorta made a bet with him that I would find Doc Ock before he could."
Ellison gave me a sharp look before slamming his hand down on his desk.
"Then what are you doing? Go get out there and find the woman before she takes out the entire state! Show that millionaire what a real investigative reporter can do!"
With a large grin spreading across my face I stood up, walked over to the fire exit, while the eyes of the office were on me, there was a large window that allowed someone to peer into Ellison's office and flew off into the sky.
(Somewhere near The Canadian Border)
He was sitting down on a park bench, a paper on his lap that had the second page of his dreams. General "Thunderbolt" Ross' true nature had been revealed to the world, which had brought a large smile to his face, and reading about all the details that he had disclosed being aired unfiltered. That told Bruce that he had made the right decision.
Even if the guy hadn't been entirely truthful about himself.
"Are you reading that again?" Betty's voice brought his head out of the pages and back to the real world. The real world that had General Ross's dreams splattered against the pavement.
"Only one more time, I just want to get that last piece of satisfaction," Bruce explained, much to her semi-amused annoyance. "Then I'll be off again, the life of a fugitive."
Bruce Banner couldn't help the sigh that escaped his lips, his eyes dropping to the ground. While Ross seemed to be getting what he deserved finally, that didn't mean Bruce could afford to stick around in one place, even though the cure appeared to have worked, there were too many people that would be after his mind to recreate the Hulk. So he was going to be running once more.
A soft hand enveloped his own, causing him to look back to Betty, whose soft smile brought warmth to his heart.
"This time, we're doing this together."
"Together."
I like that things are going slightly better for bruce!